Maybe COVID maybe not? April, 25th 2022

I want to share some info on this hepatitis issue as well as a non-covid-related drug recall and a zucchini recall.

Some items below are direct cut and pasted from the news source with a few of my comments after. I wanted to share these quickly and my time was limited so I hope you don't mind the cut and paste.

1. At least one child has died from the unexplained acute hepatitis outbreak in the U.S. and Europe, according to the World Health Organization; a dozen countries have reported 169 cases, about 10% of which required a liver transplant. (AP) -

These cases were in otherwise healthy children. I share this for several reasons, early indicators suggested there may be a COVID-related connection. That is still UNPROVEN. They have also found in many cases the child tested positive for a particular adenovirus. Adenovirus 41 is known to cause acute hepatitis in children with compromised immune systems but never before in healthy children. This is where the possible COVID connection comes in. POSSIBLY, having had covid MAY make children more vulnerable to adenovirus type 41. Maybe it doesn't. Or maybe adenovirus type 41 has nothing at all to do with it and it is just by chance, we have seen so many children with the virus and hepatitis. You recall that adenoviruses are those in the "cold" family and are pretty common - there are more than 50 types that can cause illness in humans. They typically cause respiratory illnesses like pneumonia, bronchitis, and cold-like symptoms but can also cause things like pink eye and gastroenteritis. Adenovirus type 41 typically causes gastroenteritis and respiratory illness. So watch for nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps, headache and fever as well as cough and cold-like symptoms. I realize this is a lot of "possibly" and "may" without a lot of knowns. But this is an emerging issue so we don't have a ton of knowns right now. We do know that none of the children had covid at the time of illness and none of them had been vaccinated against covid. As a parent, watch for fever, severe abdominal pain, fever, dark urine, or light stool. And keep in mind, the number of cases is higher than would be expected, but still relatively low.

2. Pfizer announced a nationwide recall of five lots of its blood pressure drug quinapril HCL (Accupril) after detecting unacceptable levels of nitrosamine, a human carcinogen. Lots of Americans are on BP meds so I thought this was worth mentioning.

3. Oh....and there is a recall of organic zucchini in 18 states due to salmonella. You can see if your state is among there here.

FINAL THOUGHTS - Just in case no one else tells you today, you are amazing, you matter, and you're doing great. Thank you for being you.