May 2021: “Our case suggests an unreported association between acute SARs-CoV-2 infection and acute hepatitis in children, thus supporting the notion that evaluation of liver enzymes during hospitalization for SARs-CoV-2 infection is also indicated in pediatric age.
Clinicians should consider SARs-CoV-2 as a possible etiology of acute nonicteric hepatitis even in children with mild respiratory symptoms. We recommend close follow-up in children with COVID-19 and liver abnormalities given the limited knowledge of the long-term impact of SARs-CoV-2 on the liver.”
The Israeli Health Ministry asked hospitals and clinics to report any cases of liver disease in children after the cases surfaced abroad. Hospital officials reported 12 cases in recent months in the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem and the Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva.
Schneider Children’s Medical Center said all seven of its cases were children who had previously been infected with COVID-19.
The Israeli Ministry of Health continues to investigate cases of infection in 12 children with acute hepatitis, 11 of whom had previously been diagnosed with corona. 7 were hospitalized in Schneider, 4 of whom reached a state of liver failure.
Schneider Hospital operates the Institute of Gastroenterology, Nutrition and Liver Diseases, where seven of the 12 children were hospitalized. Dr. Yael Mozer-Glazberg, director of the Liver Transplant Service for Children and a senior physician at the institute, said four of the children who were infected suffered from liver failure – and two of them needed a transplant.
