UK Faces A New 'Mini Epidemic' Among Kids, Scientists Stumped

The United Kingdom has seen a spike in hepatitis cases among children, and experts are struggling to determine the cause.

Around 60 cases of hepatitis in children under ten are being investigated in England, the U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced in a statement Wednesday.

Meanwhile, 11 children in Scotland aged below five have been admitted to the hospital with the inflammatory liver condition, The Independent reported.

Cases have been diagnosed in the regions of Lanarkshire, Tayside, Greater Glasgow, Clyde and Fife, added the outlet.

The viral infections typically associated with the disease have not been detected in the cases being investigated by the UKHSA.

Public Health Scotland said there were no clear causes and no obvious connection between the cases.

Symptoms of hepatitis, also known as non-A-E hepatitis, may include dark urine, itchy skin, jaundice and loss of appetite, among other things, according to the UKHSA.

"Non-A-to-E hepatitis is a rare condition and there does seem to be a mini-epidemic/kick-up in the number of cases at the present time," University College London general pediatrics professor Alastair Sutcliffe explained.

Seven or eight cases of non-A-E hepatitis, not accompanied by any other underlying diagnoses, are detected in children in Scotland each year.

It was "unusual" to see these sorts of cases in children under 10, according to Dr. Patricia Lalor, a senior investigator at the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Liver and Gastroenterology Research.

"It could be a virus, it could be a toxic effect of a drug, it could be something else completely unrelated," Lalor said.

The cause may have been chickenpox or "weird things" like Cytomegalovirus, among other viruses, she added.

A random high was also possible, but suddenly increased exposure to the causative agent in a non-immune population during the lockdown seemed the most plausible explanation, Sutcliffe said.

There seemed to be no link to the COVID-19 virus or vaccine, Lalor said.

Anyone aged 5 and over can get a first and second dose of the coronavirus vaccine in the U.K.

While she did not link the cases to the coronavirus, Lalor acknowledged that "there seems to be a hell of a lot of [COVID-19] about at the moment."

A tiny minority may be suffering rare consequences of infection, she claimed.

"There’s no obvious connection between them as I can see based on the information that’s available to me, which suggests it’s not a weird cluster of food-borne virus or something like that. It’s surprising," Lalor said.

"Investigations for a wide range of potential causes are underway, including any possible links to infectious diseases," according to Dr. Meera Chand, UKHSA director of Clinical and Emerging Infections.

The United Kingdom has reported a total of 21,508,546 COVID-19 cases and 187,929 virus-related deaths, according to publicly available government data.