Mass. DPH is investigating two cases of pediatric hepatitis in Massachusetts

BOSTON — Boston 25 News has learned that the Department of Public Health is investigating two cases of pediatric hepatitis in Massachusetts.

Since October, more than a hundred children in the United States under the age of 10 have fallen ill with the disease, which causes liver inflammation.

Ninety percent of those children required hospitalization, with fourteen percent so seriously ill they needed liver transplants.

Five children with the disease have died.

While the cause of this outbreak is still under investigation, the CDC says more than half the cases tested positive for adenovirus, a common childhood pathogen.

But a source tells boston 25 News this virus was not detected in the two cases under investigation in Massachusetts.

“This whole thing started back in October,” said Markus Buchfellner, MD, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. “We saw our first case of a child who came in with clinical signs of hepatitis.”

Those signs included vomiting and a yellowish tint to the skin known as jaundice.

“For years, we’ve seen cases of acute hepatitis,” said William Balistreri, MD, Director Emeritus of the Pediatric Liver Care Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio. “But this seems to be a unique cluster.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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