Ministry Of Health: Alleged Mysterious Acute Hepatitis In Indonesia Reaches 70 Cases

Screenshot of exposure material related to mysterious acute hepatitis in children reported by Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Mohammad Syahril

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the Indonesian Ministry of Health, Mohammad Syahril, said as many as 70 cumulative cases of suspected mysterious acute hepatitis in children were reported from 21 provinces in Indonesia as of June 20, 2022.

"A total of 16 patients have probable status, 14 patients are pending classification, and 40 are discarded," said Mohammad Syahril as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, June 24.

The definition of a probable case is suspected of suffering from acute hepatitis caused by non-hepatitis AE virus, with laboratory reports including SGOT or SGPT in the liver above 500 IU/L, age less than 16 years since October 1, 2021.

Pending classification is the status of patients who are waiting for the results of laboratory tests for hepatitis AE, SGOT or SGPT above 500 IU/L and about age under 16 years since October 1, 2021.

While the discarded classification was patients who experienced acute hepatitis because it was laboratory proven to be infected with the hepatitis AE virus) and other etiologies were detected.

Syahril said the probable patient report was reported from North Sumatra with one patient, Sumatra with one patient, DKI Jakarta with five patients, Riau one patient, Jambi one patient, Yogyakarta one patient, West Kalimantan one patient, Central Java one patient, Bali two patients, North Sulawesi one. patient, and Central Sulawesi one patient.

The most common pathogen found in probable patients was Cytomegalovirus (CMV), the herpes virus in humans. CMV was found in four of the 15 patients examined.

Of the 16 probable patients who had been examined by PCR and metagenomic, said Syahril, viruses from the Herpesviridae family were detected (CMV, HSV1, HHV-6A, HHV1, EBV). One patient was Enterovirus positive, one patient was Adenovirus positive based on rectal swab PCR.

"Of the 70 patients reported, there were 40 discarded patients, generally experiencing dengue, sepsis, and bacterial infections," he said.

When compared with the global situation as of May 26, 2022, Syahril said, there were 650 probable cases and 99 pending classifications of mysterious acute hepatitis reported from 33 countries to the World Health Organization (WHO).

"Most of the cases came from Europe 58 per cent, with 34 per cent from the UK and Northern Ireland," he said.