Health officials are exploring the possibility that a common adenovirus might be responsible for the unexplained cases, which remain rare.
www.nytimes.com
From the article:
Is this connected to Covid-19?
Probably not directly, experts said. Of the 169 patients identified by the W.H.O., 20 tested positive for the coronavirus. That is not surprising, given how widely the virus has been spreading in recent months, scientists said.
And there is no evidence that the hepatitis is linked to the Covid-19 vaccines; the “vast majority” of the children in question had not been vaccinated, the W.H.O. said.
Still, a coronavirus connection cannot be entirely ruled out, experts cautioned, and the hepatitis cases may be linked to the pandemic in less direct ways. For example, the public health measures implemented over the past two years may have left fewer children exposed to common adenoviruses. That, in turn, might have made them more susceptible now, according to one of the U.K. Health Security Agency’s working hypotheses.
But that, too, is speculative.
“At this point,” Dr. Shiau said, “we still don’t know what’s going on.”