Viral diseases in Africa: Preventing the outbreak of acute hepatitis of unknown etiology

Abstract

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver. There had been an outbreak of hepatitis of unknown origin among children, where nine pediatric patients in Alabama, United States of America, tested negative for hepatitis viruses (A, B, C, D, and E) and autoimmune conditions. So far, no case has been recorded in Africa. This article seeks to give guidelines on how to prevent its occurrence in Africa. Various literatures were reviewed on the background of hepatitis of unknown origin while focusing on World Health Organization publication as regards the outbreaks in other European countries. Therefore, it is worthy to state that Africa needs to keep its healthcare systems ready to take care of the mechanism by which the outbreak may occur and protect the vulnerable pediatric population from such an outbreak.