The incidents may have occurred at the same time, but it does not mean that they are directly connected
Jakarta (ANTARA) - There is no direct link between severe acute hepatitis and adenovirus-based COVID-19 vaccines, gastrohepatology consultant and pediatrician Hanifah Oswari has said.

"There are no proofs that they have a connection with COVID-19 vaccines," he stressed while delivering a press statement virtually on Zoom on Thursday.

Thus far, there has been no information to support the claim that there is a direct link between adenovirus and severe acute hepatitis, he informed.

"The incidents may have occurred at the same time, but it does not mean that they are directly connected," he explained.

The government has urged the Jakarta Sulianti Saroso Infection Disease Hospital and the laboratory at the University of Indonesia's (UI's) Faculty of Medicine to investigate the cause of severe acute hepatitis, he added.

"Why did many children contract it in many nations? (This is being investigated) so that we can know about this condition and its causes," Oswari explained.

On a separate occasion, former chairman of the Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI), Aman Bhakti Pulungan, said that adenovirus type 41 is a common virus that usually causes diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and respiratory diseases. It normally does not cause hepatitis in healthy children.

"It differs from the adenovirus strain used in the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which utilizes the ChAdOx1 strain (a modified form of the adenovirus that infects chimpanzees)," he explained.

Adenovirus type 41 mostly infects children under the age of five, especially those who have not received the COVID-19 vaccine.

"There has been a rise in the rate of adenovirus infections in children in England since November 2021 as compared to the last five years," he noted.

Earlier, on April 21, 2022, the Journal of Hepatology published a report entitled “SARS-CoV-2 vaccination can elicit a CD8 T-cell dominant hepatitis.”

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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Sri Haryati
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