NORFOLK, Va. — A pediatric hepatitis outbreak with mysterious origins is continuing to grow, creating a head-scratching case for medical experts.
There are currently 36 U.S. states investigating cases of kids developing the liver illness without a known cause.
The CDC has identified 71 additional cases of hepatitis in children dating back to October 2021, totaling 180 in the U.S. A handful of the cases happened in the last two weeks.
So far, half a dozen children have died. The sixth died just on Thursday.
Health experts still don’t know what’s causing it.
"So far, we have not found any common exposure or patterns," Deputy Director for Infectious Diseases with the CDC Dr. Jay Butler said.
Symptoms of this case of hepatitis include abdominal pain, jaundice, vomiting and dark stool.
In a telemeeting on Friday, Dr. Butler said their leading theory right now is adenovirus-- something the U.S. doesn't have a great record of tracking.
"The evidence is accumulating that there's a role for adenovirus, particularly adenovirus 41," Butler said.
The virus infects the lining of your eyes, lungs, intestines and nervous system, causing fever, cough and sore throat. It has not been previously linked to this type of severe liver injury in healthy children.
"While adenovirus will be the main focus, the line of investigation will also be used to examine the roll of other infections," he said.
Another theory is COVID-19, but Butler said less than 20% of children identified had the virus.
But out of the 82% that were tested for adenovirus, more than half of them were positive.
The median age of the 180 patients under investigation is 2 years old.
The CDC is encouraging clinicians to consider adenovirus testing for their patients with hepatitis without a known cause.
Norfolk mom Alex Kenefic has three children ages 1, 4 and 6. She said this new information raises more questions.
"Mostly just wanting to know more so we can protect our kids," Kenefic said.
However, she said her family isn’t going to get too concerned until they know more.
"Until we get more information though, I probably won’t necessarily change our behaviors," she said.
In the United States, unexplained cases of hepatitis are not routinely reported to public health authorities, making it difficult to know whether the 180 cases under investigation are an increase over what doctors normally see.
Butler said they are able to rule out two existing theories: close contact with dogs and COVID-19 vaccines.
At one point, their UK counterparts found relatively high numbers of dog-owning families among cases, but have since strayed away from that theory.
As for COVID-19 vaccines, the majority of children infected are under 5 years old and ineligible for the vaccine.
Virginia does have at least one known case. The Virginia Dept. of Health has yet to return calls for more information.
Worldwide, at least 450 such cases have been reported in 27 countries, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
For more information, visit the CDC's website.