Since fall 2021, pediatric physicians at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine and Children’s of Alabama have discovered nine cases of pediatric hepatitis linked to the adenovirus-41 strain identified through bloodwork. The pediatric patients were from across the state of Alabama, and an epidemiological linkage among the patients has not been determined.  

The nine pediatric patients, all under age 10, presented with varying degrees of illnesses and liver injury, including liver failure. All patients presented with jaundice, or yellowing of the skin, and were tested and diagnosed with hepatitis. Two patients required liver transplants.  

Based on information out of UAB and the Alabama Department of Public Health, the CDC issued a health alert encouraging providers presented with pediatric patients with hepatitis of an unknown origin to screen for the adenovirus-41 strain.

The UAB and Children’s team worked with the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a health alert regarding their findings. The alert encourages clinicians with pediatric patients with hepatitis of unknown cause to consider testing for the specific adenovirus strain.

“The adenovirus is typically associated with respiratory infections, as well as gastrointestinal infections,” said Helena Gutierrez, M.D., medical director of the UAB and Children’s Pediatric Liver Transplant Program. “It is very rare for a healthy person to develop a severe illness that requires hospitalization from this virus.”