Baffling Global Virus Mysteries Just Got Stranger
Inexplicable childhood liver failures and other odd virus behaviors have doctors puzzled and scientists scrambling to find causes
Serious cases of hepatitis, including two that required liver transplants, developed weeks to months after five children in Israel recovered from mild cases of Covid-19, a new study finds. The results suggest but do not prove that Covid might have been the underlying cause or a contributing factor behind these inflammatory diseases of the liver.
The new study, detailed June 10 in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, has received little attention outside the scientific community. But its publication follows months of confusion, speculation and disagreement over what’s causing a disturbing global spike in childhood hepatitis.
Meanwhile, other viruses, including the cold and flu, have been behaving strangely of late, too.
The hepatitis cases “were likely a delayed consequence of Covid-19,” says Zoë Hyde, PhD, an epidemiologist and biostatistician at the University of Western Australia who was not involved in the new research.
But Amy Edwards, MD, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Case Western Reserve University School…
