Health and wellness
There is a record of a new outbreak of hepatitis A in Portugal. The information was made public by the DGS on Tuesday and in this article we have gathered some of the essential information about this infection.
KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRA
The Directorate-General for Health (DGS) reported on Tuesday that there is a record of a hepatitis A outbreak in Portugal, having identified 23 cases by March 5th. What is hepatitis A and what symptoms does it cause?
Hepatitis A is an acute infection caused by a virus and transmitted through ingestion of contaminated water or food or by contact with the blood and other fluids of an infected patient.
According to DGSthe severity of symptoms usually depends on the age of the patient and increases with age. The fatality rate is between 0.3% and 0.6%, but can reach 1.8% in patients over 50 years of age, with no specific treatment.
What symptoms does hepatitis A cause?
The most common symptoms are fatigue, feeling unwell, fever, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes) and choluria (dark urine).
How to prevent?
The main mode of transmission is through ingestion of contaminated food or water, especially in travelersor by contact with an infected personthe DGS makes the following recommendations:
- Wash your hands thoroughly before and after handling food
- Avoid consuming raw foods
- Wash and peel the fruit well before eating it
- Cook food very well
- Keep food at safe temperatures
- Respect expiration dates
- Use treated or bottled water
- Frequent hand washing and personal hygiene, especially of the genital and perianal region, particularly before and after using sanitary facilities and before and after sexual intercourse
- Strengthening vaccination
The hepatitis A vaccine is available upon medical prescriptionin community pharmacies.
What is already known about the new outbreak?
The DGS said that, so far, “there does not seem to be an association with the possible consumption of specific foods”.
“To date, and according to the information available from reported cases, there does not appear to be an association with the possible consumption of specific foods, namely strawberries, taking into account the European food safety alert on detection and pre-sale, in Spain, of batches of strawberries contaminated with Hepatitis A virus from Morocco, a hepatitis A endemic country.”
Although an epidemiological investigation is underway, “an increase in the number of cases reported in January and February 2024 is observed, compared to the same period in previous years”.
Most cases are men aged between 20 and 4944% in the context of sexual transmission, with no serious or fatal cases reported.