‘Bumper Crop’ Of Hepatitis A Cases Reported Virus Reported By 44 This Year, Up From 4 During Same Period In ‘96

Hepatitis A cases spiked dramatically in Spokane County from the first six months of 1996 to the first six months of 1997.

Four people reported the liver disease to the Spokane Regional Health District from January to July 2, 1996. During the same period in 1997, 44 people reported the virus.

In fact, more people reported hepatitis A to the health district last week than in the first six months of 1996.

“It’s a bumper crop,” said Dr. Paul Stepak, epidemiologist for the health district. “This is a flush year for hepatitis A.”

There’s no one source for the infections, like a worker at a restaurant or a day-care center. Instead, little clusters of two and three cases are popping up.

The Panhandle Health District, which covers the five northern Idaho counties, hasn’t seen a similar jump in the infection.

There are large national outbreaks of hepatitis A about once a decade, and the last outbreak happened in 1989. More than 125,000 people come down with the virus every year in the United States.

The virus is most often spread by fecal-oral contact, which happens when people use the bathroom and either don’t wash their hands or don’t wash their hands well.

“There are three points here,” Stepak said. “Wash your hands, wash your hands and, finally, wash your hands.”

The disease is infectious from two weeks before symptoms begin until two weeks after. Symptoms include yellowing of the skin or eyes, fatigue, abdominal pain, occasional nausea, loss of appetite and diarrhea.

Most people recover within a few weeks, and some never even know they had hepatitis A. But some people, like the elderly or those with compromised livers, can become very sick and occasionally die.

Those who have been exposed to the virus can get a shot of immune globulin, which can prevent the infection within two weeks of exposure. There also is a new vaccine available for hepatitis A.

About one-third of Americans are immune to hepatitis A because they’ve already had it. The virus costs $200 million a year in medical bills and work loss, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

, DataTimes