It may not have popped up in the area as of yet, but local health officials are remaining cautious after cases of severe acute hepatitis have been confirmed in countries around the world.
"We actually do not know yet what the cause is. There's lots of theories, lots of speculation," said Dr. Nicola Mercer, the medical officer of health for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, at Wednesday's board meeting.
She said some theories relate to the adenovirus or COVID, but "none of those theories have yet to be proven and confirmed, as to the exact cause."
There are seven possible cases under investigation at SickKids Hospital in Toronto that have not been confirmed.
Mercer said the takeaway is that it's still considered a "very rare event," pointing out there are no children under investigation in the local area.
"As of (Wednesday) morning, I am not aware that any health unit has been notified that they have a child with a confirmed diagnosis in Ontario," Mercer added.
But despite the rarity, she cautioned that it's a serious disease, which has caused at least one death and forced a number of children worldwide to have liver transplants.
The World Health Organization officials reported last week they had heard of almost 300 probable cases in 20 countries.
It's also on the radar of federal health officials.
Canada's chief public health officer said Friday that they're working with the 17 pediatric centres in the country to get a better understanding of what is going on.
Tam said about half of severe pediatric hepatitis cases before the pandemic would have no known cause.
She said they're still in the investigation stage to see if any of the probable cases are linked.
"There's always been hepatitis and some severe cases of hepatitis in children pre-pandemic and one would expect post-pandemic as well," Tam said.
Adenoviruses can be associated with cold-like symptoms, fever, sore throat and pink eye.
But other problems can be triggered, such as inflammation in the stomach or intestines.
While it's not known if adenovirus is the cause of these severe hepatitis cases, SickKids Hospital's division head of infectious diseases said it would manifest as a very obvious illness, and is rare.
"If your kid is off, you should be plugged into your family physician, anyway, right? But I don't want people to be lining up in (emergency) because the kid started vomiting once or something," said Dr. Upton Allen.
Symptoms to watch out for include: jaundice (the skin, whites of your eyes and mucus membranes turn yellow), dark urine and pale stool, fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and joint pain.
- With files from The Canadian Press
