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Review
. 2022 Aug;2(2):e83.
doi: 10.52225/narra.v2i2.83. Epub 2022 Aug 1.

Acute severe hepatitis of unknown etiology in children: A mini-review

Affiliations
Review

Acute severe hepatitis of unknown etiology in children: A mini-review

Andri Frediansyah et al. Narra J. 2022 Aug.

Abstract

The emergence of acute, severe non hepA-E hepatitis of unknown etiology (ASHUE) has attracted global concern owing to the very young age of the patients and its unknown etiology. Although this condition has been linked to several possible causes, including viral infection, drugs and/or toxin exposure, the exact cause remains unknown; this makes treatment recommendation very difficult. In this review, we summarize recent updates on the clinical manifestations, complemented with laboratory results, case numbers with the global distribution and other epidemiological characteristics, and the possible etiologies. We also provide the proposed actions that could be undertaken to control and prevent further spread of this hepatitis. Since many etiological and pathological aspects of the acute non hepA-E hepatitis remain unclear, further research is needed to minimize the severe impact of this disease.

Keywords: Acute non hepA–E hepatitis; clinical manifestations; epidemiological characteristics; outbreak; prevention.

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Conflict of interest statement

All the authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Global distribution of acute severe hepatitis of unknown etiology (ASHUE) in children. Countries in grey have suspected cases (unknown numbers). Specific regions of (A) Europe, (B) Asia, (C) Central America and (D) Middle East are provided separately.

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