• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

County Finds More Hepatitis Cases: Health Department Sees No Common Link

Posted on: Tuesday, 10 January 2006, 15:00 CST

By Jim Wicker, Times-News, Burlington, N.C.

Jan. 10--The Alamance County Health Department, which had already confirmed five new cases of hepatitis A, was notified of an additional seven suspected cases in the Burlington area on Saturday and Sunday. "We're investigating each of the new cases," said Dr. Kathleen Shapley-Quinn, the department's medical director. She held a news conference Mon day to discuss the apparent out break, which is "affecting a wide age range of people, from children to adults." The families and individuals involved will be getting hepatitis A immune globulin inoculations this week, she said. Shapley-Quinn said she'd gotten no indication that the illness is connected with a restaurant or other public facility where it might have been spread through food. She added that, to date, no common link has been found that would place the victims at a source of the malady. "The department's communicable disease nurse has interviewed the involved families and is in the process of obtaining more information," she said. "The state health department will be assisting us this week in the investigation." The suspected cases came on the heels of two confirmed cases early last week and three more cases that were confirmed Thursday. Shapley-Quinn said the outbreak is the largest in Alamance County since 2000. She also said there have been no reports of similar hepatitis A cases in neighboring counties recently. Marcy Green, health education supervisor for the department, said she and others in the communicable disease section were kept busy all weekend by notifications of the suspected cases, all of which were inside the city of Burlington. Hepatitis A is caused by a virus passed by the stool of an infected person. The disease is generally transmitted by people preparing meals after failing to wash their hands after going to bathrooms or changing diapers. "Good hand washing, with the use of warm water and soap, remains one of the most important ways to prevent the spread of hepatitis A," Green said. People infected with hepatitis A have symptoms that include stomach and abdominal pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, diarrhea, fever and possibly yellowing of the eyes and skin. Symptoms of infection usually appear in 28 to 30 days. If you have questions or believe you might be infected, call the department at 513-5528 (English) or 516-6203 (Spanish). Jim Wicker can be reached at jim_wicker@link.freedom.com

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, Times-News, Burlington, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: Times-News

More News in this Category