Hepatitis A rapidly spreading

Health department reports additional 92 cases last week

Despite giving out more than 6,900 free hepatitis A vaccines last week, Florida saw its biggest weekly increase in new cases of the contagious liver disease.

The Florida Department of Health reported an additional 92 hepatitis A cases during the week ending May 11, bringing the total since the beginning of the year to 1,129 people. The 92 new cases — four of them in South Florida — represent the most reported in one week since the hepatitis outbreak started in 2018.

Every county in Florida now has at least one reported case of hepatitis A. Unlike measles, which traces its spread to international travel, about 97 percent of hepatitis A cases are likely to have been acquired in Florida, according to health officials.

The contagious virus spreads through the feces of people, primarily when they don’t wash their hands after using the bathroom. The feces can transfer to objects, food, drinks or drugs. Sometimes, it is spread by infected restaurant workers who touch food before it is served. Drug use is the most commonly identified risk factor. Symptoms includes sudden nausea and

Avomiting, fatigue, loss of appetite, low grade fever, dark urine and joint pain.

While hepatitis A typically is not considered fatal, more than a thousand people in Florida have been hospitalized since Jan. 1, 2018, because of their hepatitis A infection, and 18 have died, according to the Florida Department of Health.

As the number of new cases climbs, health officials are stepping up efforts to vaccinate the at-risk population in Florida. Groups that are considered highrisk are people in jail, the homeless, and drug users and men who have sex with other men. In the last month alone, the Florida Department Health has vaccinated more than 5,000 people a week

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The virus, spread from person to person, can live on a surface and spread when someone touches that surface and puts their hand in their mouth. “The disease is very hardy,” said Carina Blackmore, the Florida Department of Health’s state epidemiologist. “It can survive in the environment for long periods of time.”

Health officials urge good hand washing but say they best protection is vaccination.

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