The Health Ministry has reported a significant outbreak of hepatitis A, with 69
cases – almost 20 percent of them diagnosed in young drug-addicted and homeless
men in south Tel Aviv and Bat Yam – compared to only seven reported cases in the
previous year.
Hepatitis A virus (HAV) causes a potentially serious liver
disease and is found in the stool of people with the infection.
It is
usually spread by close personal contact and sometimes by eating food or
drinking water containing HAV. An infected person can easily pass the disease to
others within the same household or otherwise in proximity to him.
HAV
symptoms are jaundice (yellow skin or eyes, dark urine), severe stomach pains
and diarrhea (especially in children).
About one in five HAV patients are
hospitalized, and infected adults may be too ill to go to work for as long as a
month. It can also be fatal to around three to six people per 1,000 cases. But
there is a protective vaccine for HAV that is given to all children aged 12 to
23 months; anyone over one years old who is going to a country with a high or
intermediate prevalence of the virus.
The main individuals that are
affected are those in Central or South America, Mexico, Asia excluding Japan,
Africa, and Eastern Europe; homosexuals; people who use street drugs; chronic
liver-disease patients; hemophiliacs treated with clotting factor concentrates;
people who work with HAV-infected primates or scientists or technicians who work
with HAV in research laboratories.
The ministry said on Thursday that 66%
of those diagnoses were men and 17% homeless or drug addicts (or
both).
Molecular tests are being conducted to confirm unclear cases and
to determine whether there is a viral strain shared by all infected. Although
HAV cases are usually more common in the summer, the outbreak has continued
through the winter. Last month, all the cases involved only residents of the Tel
Aviv health district. Other health districts except that in Ashkelon did not
report anything but sporadic cases. the ministry added.
Health officials
urged that unvaccinated babies be taken for their HAV shots, and that teens up
to 17 who have not received all their shots go for such protection.
They
said the outbreak, as well as the discovery of additional cases that would
otherwise be injected in the future, can be halted if drug users (using
syringes) – especially in the area of the old and new Tel Aviv Central Bus
Stations – are vaccinated.
In addition, HAV shots should be given to
unvaccinated children or adolescents in communities with outbreaks of hepatitis
A. The largest number of cases in any single month was reported in September,
with 22 compared to three in October.
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