Kentucky, Indiana latest states to report hepatitis A outbreak
Vaccination for Travel
Kentucky and Indiana have become the latest states to experience hepatitis A outbreaks according to CNN NEWS.
From the article, the Kentucky Department for Public Health has identified 400 cases (69 cases are identified in 2018 alone) since August and declared a statewide outbreak in November. No cases have resulted in deaths in Indiana, but not in Kentucky. Three people are died by Hepatitis A in 2018. Usually, an average of about 20 cases had identified in a typical year.
Hepatitis A is a highly contagious live disease that is transmitted by eating food and drinking water. It’s also transmitted by sex and by illicit drug use.
The most common symptoms include nausea, vomiting, fever, fatigue, loss of appetite and jaundice, or yellowing of the skin or eyes. Usually, it takes 15 to 50 days for symptoms to appear; but an infected person is most contagious during the two weeks before their skin turns yellow.
Michigan, Utah, Colorado and California have seen increases in hepatitis A cases over the past year. Hepatitis A in Kentucky is linked to the outbreaks in California and Utah. In Indiana, the genotype found in two hepatitis A cases matches the genotype in ongoing outbreaks in Arizona, Kentucky, California, Michigan and Utah.
At this point, Hepatitis A cases in Indiana was spread by either homeless or drug user. However, people still need to be careful about eating and drinking water.