A HEPATITIS A outbreak has hit Sydney with 12 cases confirmed in the past five weeks. NSW Health has launched an investigation, saying 10 of the people contracted the disease in Australia. The average is two cases of locally acqured hepatitis A each year. Dr Vicky Sheppeard, Director Communicable Diseases with NSW Health said: “NSW Health is working with the NSW Food Authority to investigate the outbreak, including assessment of patterns of food distribution and any links to overseas outbreaks. However, no specific food has yet been connected to the outbreak. “Hepatitis A is usually contracted overseas in high-risk countries, but 10 of these 12 people notified to NSW Health since July 26 have had no recent overseas travel.” Dr Sheppeard added: “Two doses of vaccine prevent infection and is available through GPs.” Hepatitis A is caused by a virus that spreads in contaminated food or through poor hygiene. Symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, fever and yellowing of the skin, dark urine and pale stools. “If people think they might have those symptoms they should go to the GP and they should be very careful with hand washing and not prepare food for other people,” Dr Sheppeard said. Dr Sheppeard said more people are expected to fall ill in the outbreak with three people so sick they’ve had to be hospitalised. The cases have been found to be similar to an ongoing outbreak infecting over a 1000 people in Europe that’s suspected to be associated with lettuce. Authorities have been questioning the sick people in NSW and believe the common link may be a food distributor through supermarkets or cafes after they were unable to find a restaurant they’d all dined at. “It’s a matter of trying to understand where these people have eaten and if there is a common source that exposed all of them,” she said. “It is tricky with hepatitis A because the incubation period is over six weeks so it’s a really long period where people have to remember where they may have eaten out or purchased food from.” The sick people have been asked to recall what they ate and where it was purchased from for up to 50 days before they had symptoms. The 10 locally infected cases are spread across the state with one person in Newcastle, another in Illawarra and the others are mainly in south eastern Sydney, Sydney and Northern Sydney. All 10 cases have been diagnosed since June 26 with the most recent detected on Friday. Samples from the sick people have been sent for genetic sequencing and comparison to an international database of hepatitis A cases. The results showed the NSW cases are similar to a ongoing outbreak in Europe that is suspected to be linked to lettuce. There have been more than 1500 cases of Hepatitis A across Europe since June 2016. “It’s unlikely that lettuce from Europe would come here but there are a few things we’ve got to investigate,” Dr Sheppeard said. Food can be contaminated with hepatitis A if human faeces are in the soil it’s grown in or the water used to wash it. The disease can also be spread by the food handlers if they are carrying the illness.
An outbreak of Hepatitis A has struck Sheppeard, with 12 reported cases over a five week period, 10 of which caught the disease on home soil. The average incidence of the disease is two locally-acquired cases per year. Health authorities in New South Wales have launched an investigation into possible causes, including food contamination and overseas outbreaks. No common food link has been found, although the outbreak bears similarities to an ongoing epidemic affecting over a thousand people in Europe, suspected to have been caused by lettuce.