Public health officials in the United States and the United Kingdom are investigating a number of unusual cases of serious hepatitis in young children, the cause or causes of which are currently unknown.
Evidence from the U.K. and from Alabama — where nine cases have been recorded since last fall — points to the possible involvement of an adenovirus. Adenoviruses generally attack the respiratory tract, causing cold-like illnesses. But they have been linked to bladder inflammation and infection, and occasionally to hepatitis, though rarely in children who are not immunocompromised.