Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Hepatitis A Strikes a New Zealand Town

An outbreak of hepatitis A has infected more than two-dozen people in the town of Ashburton, New Zealand, according to health officials there.

The Canterbury District Health Board said that 28 cases of infection have been confirmed, thus far, and the true number is possibly significantly higher.

Dr Alistair Humphrey, Medical Officer of Health for Canterbury said in an interview that almost all of the confirmed cases have been traced back to a preschooler, who apparently contracted the disease during an overseas holiday with his or her family.

In response to the outbreak, health officials have started vaccinating the town’s pre-school population in an attempt to arrest the spread of the disease, which affects the liver and kills one in 50 people it infects.

Ashburton is a town of about 18,300 people, located near the east coast of New Zealand’s southern island, southwest of Christchurch.  It’s economy is primarily centered around agriculture.
 

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