Likely cause of mystery child hepatitis outbreak found

Rebecca says her son, Noah, became severely ill, very quickly

UK experts believe they have identified the cause of the recent spate of mysterious liver problems affecting young children around the world.

Investigations suggest two common viruses made a comeback after pandemic lockdowns ended - and triggered the rare but very serious hepatitis cases.

More than 1,000 children - many under the age of five - in 35 countries are thought to have been affected.

Some, including 12 in the UK, have needed a lifesaving liver transplant.

The two teams of researchers, from London and Glasgow, say infants exposed later than normal - because of Covid restrictions - missed out on some early immunity to:

adenovirus, which normally causes colds and stomach upsets

adeno-associated virus two, which normally causes no illness and requires a coinfecting "helper" virus - such as adenovirus - to replicate

That could explain why some developed the unusual and worrying liver complications.

Moar: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61269586