Response to Hepatitis A Epidemic: Emergency Department Collaboration with Public Health Commission

James, Thea; Aschkenasy, Miriam; Eliseo, L; Olshaker, Jonathan S.; Mehta, Supriya D.

doi:10.1016/j.jemermed.2007.10.001

Cited by 21 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…household contacts, sexual contacts, day-care centres or schools [4][5][6]). The following risk factors or risk groups have also been associated with illness in outbreaks: use of contaminated blood products [7], people who inject drugs [8][9][10] or use other illicit drugs [11], men having sex with men (MSM) [4], and homeless people [11,12]. No pharmacological treatment exists.…”

Section: Disease Background Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large and prolonged food-borne multistate hepatitis A outbreak in Europe associated with consumption of frozen berries, 2013 to 2014

et al. 2015

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Section: Disease Background Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large and prolonged food-borne multistate hepatitis A outbreak in Europe associated with consumption of frozen berries, 2013 to 2014

et al. 2015

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“…household contacts, sexual contacts, in day-care centres or schools (Pebody et al, 1998;Hanna et al, 2001;Blystad et al, 2004;Dakic and Musa, 2013)). The following risk factors or risk groups have also been associated with illness in outbreaks: use of contaminated blood products (Vonberg and Gastmeier, 2007); people who inject drugs (Widell et al, 1983;O'Donovan et al, 2001;Ngui et al, 2008) or use other illicit drugs (James et al, 2009); men having sex with men (MSM) (Blystad et al, 2004); and homeless people (Tjon et al, 2005;James et al, 2009). EU/EEA MSs report HAV infections notified in their countries to The European Surveillance System of ECDC (TESSy) once per year.…”

Section: General Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracing of food items in connection to the multinational hepatitis A virus outbreak in Europe

2014

EFS2

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In May 2013, Germany reported cases of hepatitis A virus (HAV) genotype IA infection in persons with a travel history and Italy reported a national increase in the number of HAV cases and declared an outbreak. Confirmed cases (outbreak strain KF182323) have been reported in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom (331 in total). HAV contamination was detected in frozen mixed berries (14 lots) and mixed berry cakes/pastries (2 lots) in Italy, France and Norway. In Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden, analysis of food histories and questionnaires identified suspect berries and berry products consumed by confirmed cases. Tracing began with 38 lots/cases from Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands, an additional 5 lots/cases were added from France, Norway and Sweden in spring 2014. The tracing data were exchanged via the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed. The final dataset comprises 6227 transactions among 1974 food operators. Bulgarian blackberries and Polish redcurrants were the most common ingredients in the traced lots/cases; however, Poland is the largest producer of redcurrants in Europe, and Bulgaria is a major exporter of frozen blackberries. No single point source of contamination linking all 43 lots/cases could be identified. HAV cases/lots in five countries could be linked to seven Polish freezing processors and/or to five frozen berry suppliers in Bulgaria. This indicates that HAV contamination could be occurring at the freezing processor or in primary production of berries and therefore compliance with Good Hygiene Practice, Good Manufacturing Practice and Good Agricultural Practice is recommended for countries producing berries for freezing. It is possible that contaminated product related to this outbreak could still be circulating in the food chain. Hence, for the public health domain, enhanced surveillance, risk communication, vaccination and further research are recommended.

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“…household contacts, sexual contacts, in day care centres or schools [4][5][6]). The following risk factors or risk groups have also been associated with illness in outbreaks: use of contaminated blood products [7], people who inject drugs [8][9][10] or use other illicit drugs [11], men having sex with men (MSM) [4], and homeless people [11,12]. No pharmacological treatment exists.…”

Section: Outbreak Of Hepatitis a Virus Infection In Residents And Tramentioning

confidence: 99%

Outbreak of Hepatitis A virus infection in residents and travellers to Italy

2013

EFSA Supporting Publications

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Since 1 January 2013, 15 laboratory-confirmed cases of HAV infection have been reported in Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. All cases had travelled to the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano in northern Italy during the exposure period. During the same period, Italy experienced an increase in cases of HAV infection both in the province of Trento and at national level. As the cases do not have a travel history outside the EU within their period of potential exposure, this strongly suggests an outbreak involving several EU Member States, with exposure currently occurring in one EU Member State. The descriptive epidemiology points at a continuous common source of infection. Preliminary epidemiological and environmental investigations indicate mixed frozen berries as the most likely vehicle of infection for this outbreak. A large number of cases reported consumption of berries prior to disease onset. In addition, HAV was isolated from a pack of mixed frozen berries at the residence of one case. RNA sequencing and interviews of patients should provide further evidence to confirm the hypothesis of mixed frozen berries as the vehicle of infection. Viral sequences information on human and food viral specimens are expected from Italy, and on human viral specimens from Poland. Italy is currently developing a multi-state case-control study. According to the available information, it is likely that additional cases will be identified and reported. ECDC invites Member States to raise awareness of a possible increase in HAV cases with a travel history to northern Italy, to report all new cases in EPIS-FWD, to use the common epidemic case definition and questionnaire to interview recent cases and to sequence a subset of viral specimens in order to confirm the link with the current outbreak in northern Italy. Travellers to areas reporting HAV outbreaks should be reminded of the availability of vaccination to prevent the risk of HAV transmission while travelling. Member States, in accordance with their national guidelines, may consider active or passive immunisation of close contacts to cases in order to avoid secondary transmission. ECDC, EFSA and the European Commission, in cooperation with the affected countries, will continue to closely monitor this event and will update the risk assessment as soon as new, relevant information becomes available. Another two HAV-related outbreaks are simultaneously under investigation in four Nordic countries and in travellers returning from Egypt. At present, there is no evidence of links between these outbreaks.

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Response to Hepatitis A Epidemic: Emergency Department Collaboration with Public Health Commission

Cited by 21 publications

References 9 publications

Large and prolonged food-borne multistate hepatitis A outbreak in Europe associated with consumption of frozen berries, 2013 to 2014

Large and prolonged food-borne multistate hepatitis A outbreak in Europe associated with consumption of frozen berries, 2013 to 2014

Tracing of food items in connection to the multinational hepatitis A virus outbreak in Europe

Outbreak of Hepatitis A virus infection in residents and travellers to Italy

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