MILWAUKEE – Medical College of Wisconsin CEO Dr. John Raymond says no one fully knows why there’s an uptick in kids hepatitis cases across the US and Europe; mostly kids under the age of seven.
Raymond cautioned that while it’s rare; with only about 150 cases reported across the US and Europe, it’s severe.
“About 10 percent of kids have needed to have a liver transplant and a couple have die,” Raymond said. “And we really don’t know the cause.”
At least 10 states have reported cases of hepatitis in children. Raymond hopped on Wisconsin’s Afternoon News and detailed which symptoms parents should be on the look-out for.
“The disease usually starts with nausea and vomiting, some diarrhea,” Raymond said. “But what should really be alarming to parents is if the children developed jaundice. If their eyes or their skin turn yellow, you really need to get to a health care facility quickly.”
Raymond says researchers are looking at adenovirus-41 as the culprit, but nothing has been proven.
Raymond also spoke on how people with asthma may actually be more protected from the coronavirus, in contrast of earlier reports.
“The COVID-19 virus needs a receptor that it binds to to invade our lung cells,” Raymond said. “And that receptor, the primary one, is called ACE-2. Tts an enzyme and something we know about people with asthma is that their ACE-2 enzyme levels are very low. So that entrance port for the virus seems to not be there.”