The mysterious outbreak of acute pediatric hepatitis first recognized in April has now affected more than 1,000 children in at least 35 countries and continues to defy explanation. Numerous hypotheses have been offered, but a pair of preprints now suggests two viruses may work together to cause the disease, particularly in children with an immune-related genetic variant. The research has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Alasdair Munro, a pediatric infectious disease researcher at University Hospital Southampton in the UK, is among several experts expressing excitement about the hypothesis on Twitter. “Looks like a pretty major breakthrough in the investigation of paediatric hepatitis with unknown cause,” he writes in a thread about the results. “Everything seems to fit, will be interesting to see if further examination can confirm this as the cause — hopefully putting to bed some of the debates,” he adds.
The two teams behind the ...
