Did the lockdown policy cause the surge of hepatitis cases among children?

It's a bit of a jump, considering that Adenovirus has only been identified in some of these hepatitis cases. They're calling it "probable", but I wouldn't pre-empt the outcome.

Anyway, yes, the health consequences were noted and called out early on in lockdowns, and it's why the WHO specifically called lockdowns a measure of last resort.

The incidences of hepatitis are still very small, very far from the freaking out stage. Severe cases even rarer still.

Under 40s (which is almost half the population) were three times more likely to die from suicide than COVID BEFORE we had vaccines. Just think of that for context.

Of course it is plausible that other health issues could have drifted under the radar because of the hysteria around COVID.

Like with covid, the severe cases obviously bubble up faster. As they get a better grip on this, they'll develop quicker ways of identifying and classifying this. We'll likely discover that as a % of total cases, the number of severe outcomes is very low.

Nevertheless, we still have to keep this in perspective. In a given year, the odds of a child dying from cancer is between 1 in 500k to 1 in 300k. The odds of a child dying from septicaemia, around 1 in a million. Which means by implication that the number of children suffering with these conditions and surviving and needed critical treatments, like surgery and transplants, is much higher.

Based on the data we have right now, the odds of dying from this hepatitis is 1 in 3 million or less. It will probably increase as we get a better grip on it, but it is very, very far away from the panic stage.

short term thinking and a lack of backbone has nowgoosed the health service in the medium - long term with the stuff they didn't do over that 2 year (or so ) period.

you wouldn't need any science or medical grounding to know that lockdowns and other measures like excessive hand sanitiser would damage immune systems esp on kids in their formative years. we will see more of this without a doubt .

we are seeing reports that language development is stunted for a whole generation of under 5 due to lockdowns and associated measures. even simple things like kids learning to swim was curtailed and now the classes are over subscribed - sure swimming lessons isnt a huge thing (but speech development is ) but all these add up

it's not like these issues were never flagged at the time - they were and they were ignored - everybody and everything was burnt on the alter of covid and the myth of protecting "the grannys".

If we take the view that protecting the health service for those at risk of covid was the right thing - it wasn't btw - why aren't the state agencies demanding people lower their risk factors now in advance of the next pandemic to reduce the demand.

Such emotive language, " shaming the unvaxxed " and " hysteria " . Appears a lot in your posts ..

The " unvaxxed" when Delta was the main variant , were multiple times more likely to be infected and 11 times more likely to be hospitalised and 15 times to become severely ill , despite you stating the opposite whenever you get the opportunity.

That would be across the age groups by the way , not just elderly .

Any accusations of " shaming" as you put it , were highest when anybody dared to mention the above , and the fact that exceeding high numbers of the unvaccinated were being hospitalised and needing ICU care , despite being their being a small proportion of the total adult population .

Do you not think it would have been remiss of health care professionals and public health to point out this glaringly, obvious fact , or would you prefer we all stfu and leave " the unvaxxed " to their fate , despite the effects on the rest of the population in the form of continuing restrictions? No need to answer that , I already know you have no regard for what is factual data for most people.

To get back to the point of the thread ....This burst of hepatitis infections has not been either connected with Covid , or adenovirus as yet never mind lockdowns, and may in fact be something connected with all of the above or just coincidental ..who knows ? We will have to wait and see .

Except in all these cases the children tested negative for all hepatitis viruses - it was not the usual causes of hepatitis that did this, otherwise it would have been a regular occurrence because those viruses never really went away proper, nor were children exposed to them in any unusual way. The last 2 years of pandemic are the unusual factor in this cluster of cases, which suggests something to do with pandemic or pandemic response is to blame.

Which would mean that lockdown policy has created this surge of hepatitis cases among children

Adenoviruses don't usually cause hepatitis though even in a young child who has not been infected with them before .

And they have not yet found a source virus although adenovirus is present in a good number of cases .

No proof yet as to the cause . Saying it is due to the pandemic is probable but not definite . Saying it us due to lockdown is too simplistic.

Some of the children affected are older and would have been mixing with other children in school / afterschool .

One area that is being investigated is an overreaction of the immune system causing autoimmune hepatitis which can present similarly .

Not related to Covid . Nor have they been vaccinated .

There would be a number of specific antibodies present in a diagnosis of AIH ( Auto immune induced hepatitis) and the jury is out as yet whether it is this , or a post viral infection reaction .

It could be that these children are reacting to previously common viral infections in a very exaggerated way but Misc- C was picked up quickly and is rare , so why would this be so difficult to diagnose?

Read an interesting article about it that said that there was a similar affect noted post 1918 flu epidemic ...lot of cases of jaundice in children . In the Telegraph . Doesn't go into further detail .

It's a mystery and not a nice one .

Have to say that while one of mine has developed an autoimmune disease post Covid infection , it could be as you and others have said lack of immunity post restrictions .

Don't know what it is , but don't feel comfortable talking about it anymore after that news today 😑

Take care x

I’m no expert but I do not think that this is to do with lockdown at all. I wonder did those kids contract covid and this could be a rare side effect. Remember that cohort under 5 are not vaccinated. It’s only my thinking but there’s more to this than adenovirus.

Eh , think that the person thinking in black and white is you AD .

That post was over 2 weeks ago .... do you understand context ?

Genuine question. Was Australia and New Zealand right with their zero covid approach at the beginning? A normal life for all.

Now we have all sorts of problems. Kids with hepatitis. Supply issues because of staff out sick. Cost of living getting more expensive, a recession on the way.

And if anyone thinks a zero covid approach is impossible, we didn't even try a zero covid approach. If we all had a zero covid approach at the beginning, maybe it wouldn't have gotten into Australia or New Zealand.