Hepatitis A Transmitted by Food

Abstract

Hepatitis A is caused by hepatitis A virus (HAV). Transmission occurs by the fecal-oral route, either by direct contact with an HAV-infected person or by ingestion of HAV-contaminated food or water. Foodborne or waterborne hepatitis A outbreaks are relatively uncommon in the United States. However, food handlers with hepatitis A are frequently identified, and evaluation of the need for immunoprophylaxis and implementation of control measures are a considerable burden on public health resources. In addition, HAV-contaminated food may be the source of hepatitis A for an unknown proportion of persons whose source of infection is not identified.

Susceptibility to hepatitis A in patients with chronic liver disease due to hepatitis C virus infection: Missed opportunities for vaccination

“…T he hepatitis A virus (HAV) is an important cause of acute hepatitis worldwide, and this virus has been responsible for numerous disease outbreaks from close personal or sexual contact, [1][2][3] contaminated food or water, 1,[4][5][6][7] injection drug use, 8,9 and other modes of transmission. 8,10 Despite the availability of the HAV vaccine since 1995, HAV infection continues to be one of the most common vaccine-preventable illnesses in the United States.…”

An individual-based model of hepatitis A transmission

“…2 Individuals who contracted the infection and recovered; vaccinated individuals are 15 for Puglia region dimensionless 3.8 Latent period weeks 2 (CDC, 2007;Stapleton and Lemon, 1994) Infectious period weeks 3 (CDC, 2007;Stapleton and Lemon, 1994) Decay of survival of HAV weeks −1 0.0833 Abad et al, 1994;Biziagos et al, 1988;Mbithi et al, 1991) in the environment Probability of becoming symptomatic for individuals aged 0-6 percentage 4 (Fiore, 2004;Stapleton and Lemon, 1994) for individuals aged 7-16 percentage 16 (Fiore, 2004;Stapleton and Lemon, 1994) for individuals older than 16 percentage 80 (Fiore, 2004;Stapleton and Lemon, 1994) Vaccine efficacy percentage 98 (Averhoff et al, 2001) by the model is 65.8% in Campania, and 73.8% in Puglia (see Table 2 and 3). These estimates comply with the seroprevalence data reported in (Ansaldi et al, 2008), where an average value of 67.7% is reported for Southern Italy.…”

“…Indirect transmission represents the most important source of infection in countries with high living standards (Fiore, 2004;Lopalco et al, 1997). Specifically, raw mussels and shellfish consumption represents the main source of infection in Italy (Mele et al, 2006), especially in the most affected regions: Puglia and Campania (Chironna et al, 2002(Chironna et al, , 2003Salamina and D'Argenio, 1998).…”

“…Isolation of symptomatic cases is not sufficient to interrupt person-to-person transmission within day care centers and kindergartens, since the probability of being symptomatic in individuals aged 0-6 is very low (about 4% (Stapleton and Lemon, 1994;Fiore, 2004)). In this respect, the closure of day care centers and kindergartens is required.…”

Análisis filogenético de las cepas de rotavirus y virus de la hepatitis A encontradas en agua de consumo en el municipio de Quibdó, Chocó

“…El virus de la hepatitis A pertenece a la familia Picornaviridae, género Hepatovirus; se ha descrito un solo serotipo y siete genotipos cuya presencia se ha asociado a zonas geográficas. Por pertenecer a esta familia, se encuentra genéticamente relacionado con el virus de la poliomielitis y el de la fiebre aftosa (4)(5)(6)(7). La infección por este virus puede no producir síntomas, lo que lleva a subestimar su presencia y a encontrar un porcentaje alto de la población con títulos positivos de anticuerpos en edad adulta (4).…”