Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study Finds Possible Link Between Long Covid And Child Hepatitis
ABC News: Study On Child Hepatitis Cases Points To Prior COVID Infection, But Experts Say Too Soon To Know
A new study points to prior COVID-19 infection as a possible culprit for the global wave of severe hepatitis cases among children -- though experts caution the true cause is still a medical mystery. Researchers in Israel added evidence for the theory in a small study published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, suggesting some children might develop liver inflammation in the weeks after recovering from a mild COVID-19 infection. (Salzman, 6/14)
The Jerusalem Post: Long COVID May Be Behind Mysterious Child Hepatitis - Study
Long COVID may be the cause of unexplained cases of hepatitis in children around the world in recent months, Israeli researchers from Schneider Children’s Medical Center, Rabin Medical Center – Beilinson Hospital, Rambam Medical Center and Tel Aviv University found in a study recently published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. ... The Israeli scientists who conducted the study noted that liver injury has been recorded in adult patients with severe coronavirus infections and that children can be affected with multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) as a result of COVID-19, which can injure the liver. Post-COVID-19 liver injuries have been increasingly reported among adults as well. (Joffre, 6/14)
More on the hepatitis outbreak —
The New York Times: Unexplained Hepatitis Is Not More Common In U.S. Kids Than Before Pandemic, CDC Suggests
Unexplained hepatitis does not appear to have become more common among American children than it was before the Covid-19 pandemic began, according to a new review of three large medical databases by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The results are part of an ongoing investigation into a puzzling cluster of cases of severe hepatitis, or liver inflammation, in previously healthy children, which date back to October 2021. As of May 26, 650 probable cases had been reported in 33 countries, according to the World Health Organization. Although the cases are extremely rare, they can be severe, resulting in liver transplants or death. (Anthes, 6/14)
In other news about long covid —
Newsday: Study: 9/11 Responders With Chronic Illness May Get More Severe COVID-19
World Trade Center responders with chronic health conditions who contract COVID-19 may have more serious and long-term illness from the virus, according to a new study from the Stony Brook World Trade Center Health and Wellness Program. The study looked at 1,280 patients at the program with COVID-19, all of whom were 9/11 responders, comparing ones with chronic disease to those without. It was published this month in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. (Colangelo, 6/13)
Time: Dogs Can Sniff Out COVID-19 And Signs Of Long COVID
Dogs can also detect viral compounds in sweat from Long COVID patients up to 18 months after they first caught the virus, according to a study co-authored by Grandjean and posted in January on MedRxiv, a server for new research that hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed. (The study was subsequently published in the Journal of Clinical Trials.) Canines in that study detected evidence of the virus in samples from 23 out of 45 Long COVID patients in the trial, but not among any of the sweat samples that came from 188 people without Long COVID. (Ducharme, 6/14)
Nature: How Months-Long COVID Infections Could Seed Dangerous New Variants
Virologist Sissy Sonnleitner tracks nearly every COVID-19 case in Austria’s rugged eastern Tyrol region. So, when one woman there kept testing positive for months on end, Sonnleitner was determined to work out what was going on. Before becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2 in late 2020, the woman, who was in her 60s, had been taking immune-suppressing drugs to treat a lymphoma relapse. The COVID-19 infection lingered for more than seven months, causing relatively mild symptoms, including fatigue and a cough. (Callaway, 6/15)
Time: Why So Many Long COVID Patients Are Having Suicidal Thoughts
Last year, Diana Berrent—the founder of Survivor Corps, a Long COVID support group—asked the group’s members if they’d ever had thoughts of suicide since developing Long COVID. About 18% of people who responded said they had, a number much higher than the 4% of the general U.S. adult population that has experienced recent suicidal thoughts. A few weeks ago, Berrent posed the same question to current members of her group. This time, of the nearly 200 people who responded, 45% said they’d contemplated suicide. (Ducharme, 6/13)
Fierce Biotech: Long COVID, Brief Dream: Phase 2 Flop Sparks End Of PureTech's Bid To Treat Coronavirus Complications
PureTech Health’s long COVID trial has come up short. The drug candidate failed to help patients with the condition walk farther, prompting the company to drop plans for further studies in the indication. In 2020, PureTech identified an opportunity to use its deuterated form of pirfenidone—a treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis that Roche’s Genentech sells as Esbriet—in patients with long COVID. The decision to start a clinical trial of the candidate, LYT-100, in the indication was underpinned by evidence of the prevalence of lung fibrosis in COVID-19 patients and persistence of long-term symptoms. (Taylor, 6/14)
