What Are the Common Signs of Hepatitis in Children?

Children with hepatitis are mainly acute hepatitis A, mostly jaundice, often accompanied by fever, chills, and general weakness. Among the symptoms of the digestive tract, there are nausea, vomiting, fullness of the upper abdomen, diarrhea, etc. More than half of the children will show abdominal pain.

Hepatitis in children

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Children with hepatitis are mainly acute hepatitis A, mostly jaundice, often accompanied by fever, chills, and general weakness. Among the symptoms of the digestive tract, there are nausea, vomiting, fullness of the upper abdomen, diarrhea, etc., and more than half of the children will show abdominal pain.

nickname

Hepatitis in children

TCM disease name

Hepatitis in children

Visiting department

Pediatrics

Multiple groups

child

Common causes

Infectious diseases caused by hepatitis virus.

Common symptoms

Anorexia, fever, yellow urine, thin stools, upper abdominal pain, liver enlargement in sick children, nausea, vomiting, and jaundice.

Contagious

Have

Hepatitis in children and viral hepatitis are common and frequently-occurring. In China, hepatitis B in children accounts for a large number of which hepatitis caused by cytomegalovirus, EB virus, coxsackie virus in children has a certain proportion. Although the viruses that cause hepatitis are different, their clinical manifestations are similar. Therefore, I hope that parents will pay attention to treatment in time. Clinically, children with hepatitis are mainly acute hepatitis A, mostly jaundice, often accompanied by fever, chills, and general weakness. Among the symptoms of the digestive tract, there are nausea, vomiting, fullness of the upper abdomen, diarrhea, etc., and more than half of the children will show abdominal pain. Therefore, it is easy to be misdiagnosed as upper respiratory infection, gastroenteritis, appendicitis, intestinal roundworm, and even acute abdomen.

Caused by different types of hepatitis viruses, pathogens mainly invade the liver and cause lesions.
"Infectious hepatitis" is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis virus. According to the type of pathogen, it can be divided into hepatitis A, hepatitis B and non-A non-B hepatitis. School-age children have more morbidity and fewer children, with a higher incidence in summer and autumn. The incubation period of hepatitis A is short, about 14-40 days. The isolation period for patients should not be less than 30 days from the date of onset. Hepatitis A virus is mainly present in the body fluids of hepatitis patients and the feces of carriers of the virus. It is transmitted orally through contamination of hands, drinking water, food or utensils. Hepatitis B has a longer incubation period, which can range from 60 to 160 days. The isolation period of hepatitis B patients should also be longer than that of hepatitis A. In addition to being present in the patient's secretions such as saliva and sperm, hepatitis B virus is also present in the tissues and blood of the carrier of the virus. Therefore, in addition to oral transmission, infection can be caused by blood transfusion and the use of contaminated syringes. The symptoms of hepatitis are mainly fever, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, fatigue, liver enlargement, pain in the liver area, jaundice, and malnutrition. Generally can be divided into four major types of acute hepatitis, subacute hepatitis, chronic hepatitis and severe hepatitis.

Caused by hepatitis virus, pathogens mainly invade the liver and cause lesions.

Hepatitis in children-symptoms

1. Anorexia, children usually eat normally, do not like to eat when eating recently, even the usual favorite meals are not eaten, and they are more afraid of smelling oil. After children eat these usually favorite foods, they have Nausea and vomiting may be a symptom of hepatitis in children. 2. Spirit, pay more attention to whether the child's mental condition is good, healthy children are usually fun and active, more lively. If he is suddenly lethargic, debilitated, always sleeps, and loses weight, hepatitis in children should be considered.
3. The symptoms of fever and childhood hepatitis are often similar to colds, especially in areas where hepatitis is endemic. If the child develops low fever (temperature below 38 ° C) and does not have respiratory symptoms, child hepatitis should be considered.
4. Thin stool, children without a history of cold and unclean diet, stool becomes thinner, more frequent, dark yellow, children's hepatitis should also be considered.
5. Urinary yellow, urine yellow is one of the early signs that often appear in children with hepatitis, and you should pay special attention to it. However, it is necessary to identify the child's recent medication history (such as taking riboflavin, berberine, panterin, etc.) and certain foods.
6. Upper abdominal pain, sick child liver enlargement, manifested as right upper abdominal pain or continuous pain, especially at night. Individual sick children also have a large spleen, accompanied by local tenderness, and refuse to touch the adults.
7. Jaundice, jaundice first occurs in children's sclera and conjunctiva (white eyeballs), and then the skin behind the ears and the whole body is yellow, often in children with jaundice hepatitis.
How to find early symptoms of hepatitis in children? Children's hepatitis is mainly acute hepatitis A, mostly jaundice, but it can also show other symptoms on the body, such as fever, chills, general weakness, nausea, vomiting, fullness of the upper abdomen, and diarrhea. Therefore, parents should observe from multiple aspects, and find and treat them early.
Observe whether the child's appetite is normal: Pay attention to compare with the past to see if there is any decline in appetite such as anorexia and small meals. If you see meat or smell greasy, you will vomit.
Mental condition: If the child is originally a lively, cheerful, active type, and suddenly becomes lazy, sleepy, tired, etc., it also needs to attract parents' attention.
Whether his face is normal: It is mainly to observe whether the child's face is yellow, especially whether the sclera and conjunctiva (white eyeballs) are yellow, and then the whole body's skin is yellow. Once signs of jaundice are found, the child should be promptly taken for relevant examinations.
Is the urine normal? If the child often has diarrhea, the stool is not formed, the color is light, or the urine is dark yellow, and sometimes urine stains on the clothes, leaving yellow marks. These are the early symptoms of jaundice hepatitis.
Presence or absence of abdominal pain: Hepatitis can lead to hepatomegaly, and there is faint or continuous pain in the right upper abdomen. The pain is especially severe at night. Individual children with hepatitis show swelling of the spleen, accompanied by pain in the spleen area, and often use their hands to consciously or unconsciously touch the upper abdomen. If this happens to the child, parents need to take the child to a doctor in time.

How to find early symptoms of hepatitis in children?

Children's hepatitis is mainly acute hepatitis A, mostly jaundice, but it can also show other symptoms on the body such as fever, chills, general weakness, nausea, vomiting, fullness of the upper abdomen, diarrhea, etc. Therefore, parents should observe from multiple aspects, and find and treat them early.
Observe whether the child's appetite is normal: Pay attention to compare with the past to see if there is any decline in appetite such as anorexia and small meals. If you see meat or smell greasy, you will vomit.
Mental condition: If the child is originally a lively, cheerful, active type, and suddenly becomes lazy, sleepy, tired, etc., it also needs to attract parents' attention.
Whether his face is normal: It is mainly to observe whether the child's face is yellow, especially whether the sclera and conjunctiva (white eyeballs) are yellow, and then it is necessary to see if the whole body has yellowing. Once signs of jaundice are found, the child should be promptly taken for relevant examinations.
Is the urine normal? If the child often has diarrhea, the stool is not formed, the color is light, or the urine is dark yellow, and sometimes urine stains on the clothes, leaving yellow marks. These are the early symptoms of jaundice hepatitis.
Presence or absence of abdominal pain: Hepatitis can lead to hepatomegaly, and there is faint or continuous pain in the right upper abdomen. The pain is especially severe at night. Individual children with hepatitis show swelling of the spleen, accompanied by pain in the spleen area, and often use their hands to consciously or unconsciously touch the upper abdomen. If this happens to the child, parents need to take the child to a doctor in time.
Children's hepatitis-Characteristics of the disease Children's livers occupy a relatively large proportion of the body compared to adults. They have a rich blood supply and strong ability to regenerate liver cells, but the immune system is still immature, and they can easily develop immune tolerance to invasive hepatitis viruses. Therefore, children infected with Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C can easily become chronic carriers.
40% -70% of infants infected with hepatitis B virus through vertical transmission of mother-to-child infection eventually become long-term carriers of hepatitis B virus, and 20% -30% become carriers after acquired infection before 3 years old. These hepatitis B virus carriers are often susceptible to hepatitis D virus infection, exacerbate liver disease, and accelerate the development of cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Clinically, infantile acute hepatitis is predominantly jaundice, with a short duration, obvious gastrointestinal symptoms, and onset symptoms are more common with fever and abdominal pain. Children with hepatitis less than 6 months of age have more severe hepatitis, are extremely ill, and have a high mortality rate. Elderly children are mostly mild, non-jaundice or sub-jaundice, with insidious onset, often found during enrollment or physical examination.
The peak of surface antigens in children with hepatitis B is generally 5-9 years old, while the peaks of antibody-positive rates are mostly 10-15 years old; the positive rates of surface antigens and e-antigens in serum are higher than in adults. In addition, 20% -30% of children with chronic hepatitis B will have extrahepatic system manifestations, especially kidney damage and rash.

Clinical characteristics of HBV symptoms in children

Clinical characteristics of HBV symptoms in children

1. Acute hepatitis B without jaundice: Hepatitis B is more common than jaundice, but it is not easy to find. It is often a subclinical disease with only a slight increase in serum aminotransferase; or there are non-hepatic specific symptoms such as loss of appetite, nausea, low fever, discomfort; even if there are more obvious symptoms, without jaundice, it may be misdiagnosed as upper respiratory infection Acute gastroenteritis.
Jaundice Hepatitis B: The clinical process is also milder than Hepatitis A. Fever in the early stage of jaundice, a small number of children may have high fever, most of which only last 1-3 days, a few can be 1 week. May have nasal congestion, runny nose, cough, throat congestion and other respiratory symptoms. Gastrointestinal symptoms can include loss of appetite, nausea, and vomiting; infants often have diarrhea, which is related to reduced bile acid in the bile and weakened digestive function. Some children have abdominal pain unrelated to the liver area, and severe cases can be misdiagnosed as biliary ascariasis or acute appendicitis. About 10% of sick children have extrahepatic manifestations, and arthritis or rash is more common. There may also be papular dermatitis, manifesting fever; erythema on the face and extremities-papular dermatitis, itchy, non-recurrent; lymphadenopathy; liver enlargement. Deeper urine color during jaundice can be found earlier by attentive parents; yellow staining of the sclera and skin occurs next, mostly milder. Most of the sick children have enlarged liver, which is more obvious at a younger age; the spleen is often transiently enlarged. Facial capillary dilatation, spider nevus, and liver palms appear in some children. Due to the low detoxification and inactivation function of children's liver, these manifestations do not indicate chronicity of the disease. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) was significantly increased.
In the recovery period, jaundice subsided and ALT decreased normally within 2-4 weeks; the liver could return to its original state within 2-3 months. Most children with acute hepatitis B completely recovered, cleared HBsAg within 6 months, nearly 80% anti-HBs seroconversion, and almost all had anti-HBs conversion within 1 year. Compared with adults, acute hepatitis B in children is more acute and systemic symptoms are more obvious. The symptoms of upper respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tract during prodromal stage are more prominent. Jaundice is milder and liver enlargement is more pronounced. The disease period is short, usually 2-4 weeks.
Second, fulminant hepatitis B: less than 1% of children with acute HBV develop into fulminant HBV, and perinatal infection mostly occurs in the neonatal period of 2-6 months. Mothers of anti-HBe (+) carriers may transmit pre-C variant virus, infected children lack the immune tolerance factor HBeAg, and may develop fulminant hepatitis B.
3. Chronic Hepatitis B: Chronic HBV infection in children is mostly AsC, liver histology is normal, or only mild inflammation of inflammation, and most of the patients who see a doctor for symptoms are mild chronic hepatitis B. The symptoms of the sick child were mild, the liver was slightly swollen than normal, and liver enzymes were mildly abnormal or intermittently abnormal. A small number of children have chronic active hepatitis B with a long course of disease, poor nutritional status, and affected growth and development. In children, the metabolic capacity of the liver is low. When liver cells are damaged, albumin and coagulation factors are insufficiently synthesized. Hypoalbuminemia and bleeding tendency are common. As long as most children with chronic hepatitis B are seroconverted by Hbe and serum transaminase continues to be normal, liver tissue learns to continue to improve. Although there is still low levels of viremia, the state of remission can be quite stable. Chronic hepatitis B children with spontaneous HBe seroconversion before the age of 6 years rarely have pre-C / A83 and C gene promoter mutations. HBeAg negative conversion is the result of resting virus replication. After 6 years of age, the occurrence of virus mutations is gradually similar to that of adults, and the development of the disease is also affected by the virus mutations.
Fourth, pediatric hepatitis B comorbidity and non-hepatic diseases: children with acute hepatitis B can be combined with hemolysis and aplastic anemia. Associated nephritis is another non-hepatic disease of HBV infection in children. It often occurs in chronic asymptomatic HBV carriers without hepatitis. The disease can be relieved after antiviral treatment.
V. Hepatic cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma in children with hepatitis B: Although most HBV-related chronic liver disease manifests in adulthood, HBV infection in high endemic areas often begins in infancy. Infants / L acquired infections during perinatal period are at high risk of developing chronic invasive liver disease in childhood, which can progress to cirrhosis and even HCC. Male predisposition is evident in cirrhosis and HCC.
Hepatitis in children-prevention

1. Inoculate hepatitis B vaccine and hepatitis A vaccine from infants according to national standards.
2. Parents and teachers should educate their children to do good personal hygiene and develop a good habit of washing their hands before and after meals.
3. Do not drink raw water, do not buy snacks from stall vendors, do not share tea cups, tableware, toothbrushes, etc., do not bite your fingers and fingernails, so as to avoid illness from the mouth.
4. Parents should take their children to public places, and avoid touching them by hand, including subways and escalators in shopping malls. When dining out, it is best to go to a restaurant with better sanitation conditions.
5. Children with hepatitis found in schools and kindergartens should immediately report to the epidemic prevention department, and disinfect the child's classroom under the guidance of the relevant department, and make medical observation of the child.
6. Schools and kindergartens should regularly disinfect doors, windows, walls, floors, and places that children can easily reach, and children's tableware should often be boiled and disinfected. Hepatitis A virus cannot survive at 100 ° C for 5 minutes. Therefore, boiling the tableware often is a good way for families to eliminate hepatitis A virus.
7, usually strengthen physical exercise, enhance the child's physique, and ensure adequate rest and sleep.
8, try to avoid using blood products for children, injections, infusions (blood) should go to a regular hospital.