Three simultaneous, food-borne, multi-country outbreaks of hepatitis A virus infection reported in EPIS-FWD in 2013: what does it mean for the European Union?

Abstract

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Hepatitis A outbreak among men who have sex with men (MSM) predominantly linked with the EuroPride, the Netherlands, July 2016 to February 2017

“…The average incubation period is 28 days (range: 15–50 days) [8]. In western Europe hepatitis A endemicity is low [9] and is primarily associated with travelling to endemic countries [10] or consumption of contaminated, imported food [11]. Outbreaks among MSM have also been described [12].…”

Globalization and the Changing Epidemiology of Hepatitis A Virus

“…The fruit products likely became contaminated as a result of poor worker hygiene or the spraying of produce with irrigation water that contained raw sewage (Tavoschi et al 2015). At the same time that this large outbreak was occurring, separate multicountry hepatitis A outbreaks in other parts of Europe were linked to strawberries imported from Egypt and Morocco (Gossner and Severi 2014). Foodborne outbreaks of HAV in other parts of the world have also been reported with increasing frequency.…”

Processing Strategies to Inactivate Hepatitis A Virus in Food Products: A Critical Review

“…The occurrence of numerous HAV outbreaks linked to the consumption of shellfish and berries that had been frozen for several months clearly indicates that if food is contaminated before freezing, substantial percentages of the viruses will remain infectious during frozen storage (Table ). For instance, in the last decade, several outbreaks of hepatitis A associated with frozen foods of foreign origin have been reported in industrialized countries (Collier and others ; Gossner and Severi ; Guzman‐Herrador and others ; Wenzel and Allerberger ). Additionally, some studies have been able to sequence HAV strains from frozen shellfish and berries.…”