Hepatitis A Blog

Michigan Mom Shares Her Daughter's Experience With Hepatitis A

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Attorney) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 10:19:37 -0800

Kathy Dopp of Safe Tables Our Priority (S.T.O.P.) advocates for a stronger federal food safety bill in hometown newspaper, the Battlecreek Enquirer. In doing so, she tells the story of her daughter's illness after contracting Hepatitis A from Mexican strawberries a decade ago. Here's part of that story:

Like most 8-year-olds, my daughter, Hallie, looked forward to Valentine's Day treats and happily ate strawberry shortcake as part of the festivities in 1997. We had no idea that the frozen strawberries used in the cake - Mexico-grown and fraudulently labeled as having been grown in the United States so they could be sold to schools - would land her in the hospital.

A few days later, she was in so much pain she couldn't stop crying as she struggled to keep food down and battle an extremely high fever. When I arrived at the emergency room with Hallie, teachers and other children from school were there with similar symptoms. She was quickly diagnosed with Hepatitis A, but it took several days until a health department investigation found that the strawberries were to blame for her illness and that of 260 other residents of our small Michigan town.

Hallie left the hospital after a week, but the problems didn't end there. She missed school and had to give up soccer and dance. And she faced social stigma when parents wouldn't allow their children to play with her out of fear that she would spread the disease. Her medication caused her to gain weight and she tired so easily that she was unable to play outside with her brother or friends. In many ways, Hallie was robbed of her childhood. She is 20 now, but still copes with a weakened immune system and the emotional effects of what happened.

S.T.O.P. is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing illness and death from foodborne pathogens. Dopp shares her opinion in the Battle Creek Enquirer.

Pets And Some Meat Consumption Play Important Role In HEV, New Study Says

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Attorney) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:50:45 -0800

Hepatitis E, like Hepatitis A, is a virus that can be spread through food. It does not get as much attention as Hepatitis A because it is thought to be rare. But, how that is understood may be changing.

The prestigious Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is out with a study that concludes that exposure to the Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) is fairly common--but disease rarely follows the exposure.

The study found antibodies indicating exposure to HEV in 21 percent of the U.S. population between 1988 and 1994. HEV is a major cause of viral hepatitis in many developing countries, but how it is spread in developed countries is not fully known. The study is published in the July 1 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

“Our study shows that animals could play an important role in the spread of HEV in the U.S. Having a dog or pet in the home or consuming meats like liver and other organs were significantly associated with increased odds of exposure to HEV,” said lead author Mark H. Kuniholm, PhD, a 2007 graduate of the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

More can be found in the School's press release or by going to the JID site.

American Society for Microbiology honors Stanley A. Plotkin

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Attorney) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:54:17 -0800

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Maurice Hilleman/Merck Award has gone to Stanley A. Plotkin, M.D., Professor Emeritus, Wistar Institute and the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, for his lifetime of dedication to vaccinology, including his role in developing vaccines for Hepatitis A.

This award, established in the memory of Maurice Hilleman, honors major contributions to pathogenesis, vaccine discovery, vaccine development, and/or control of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Dr. Hilleman is credited with developing over 40 vaccines, including those that prevent measles, mumps, rubella, Haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and chickenpox. These vaccines save millions of lives each year, and he is frequently credited with saving more lives than any other scientist of the 20th century.

Dr. Plotkin received his M.D. from the State University of New York College of Medicine, Brooklyn, and is credited with two major accomplishments. Human viruses had been attenuated by serial passage in non-human cells, a technique employed by Dr. Hilleman for the measles, mumps, and first rubella vaccines. In the 1970s, Plotkin took a strain of rubella virus from an infected fetus and attenuated it by low-temperature adaption in fetal embryo fibroblast cells. This work led to Dr. Plotkin being the first to attenuate a human virus by adaptation to low temperature and the first to make a vaccine in human cells.

Dr. Plotkin developed RA 27/3, a rubella vaccine and the first licensed vaccine made in human cells. RA 27/3 is used worldwide and as a result, the U.S., Canada, several Latin American countries, and the English speaking Caribbean Islands are free of rubella. It is expected that by 2010 the Americas will be rubella free, and by 2016, so will the European and Central Asian regions.

"Hepatitis A" Tops Texas Vaccine Requirements For School-Aged Children

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Attorney) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:25:28 -0800

About a dozen states comply with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations for vaccines for school-aged children. The states have the power to enforce vaccine requirements at the school house door.

Since about 180,000 people become sick with Hepatitis A each year, and since that includes about 60,000 children, CDC recommends Hepatitis A vaccines for children entering Kindergarten for the 2009-10 school year.

Here is the vaccine schedule as being enforced in Texas:

Hepatitis A vaccine — Students entering Kindergarten must have two doses.
Measles, mumps, rubella vaccine — Students entering Kindergarten must have two doses. Students in grades 1-12 must continue to meet the state requirements, which is two doses of a measles-containing vaccine and one dose each of mumps and rubella vaccine.
Vericella vaccine — Students entering kindergarten and seventh grade must have had two doses. Students in grades 1-6 and 8-12 must continue to meet the state requirements.
Tetanus, diphtheria, acellular peryussis-containing vaccine — Students entering seventh grade must have one dose of Tdap vaccine. Students in seventh grade must have had a booster dose of Tdap, but only if it has been five years since their last dose of a tetanus vaccine. Students in grades 8-12 must have had a booster dose of Tdap if it has been 10 years since their last dose.
Meningococcal vaccine — Students entering seventh grade must have one dose.

Happy Hepatitis Awareness Day! Hepatitis A & B Are Preventable Diseases

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Attorney) — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:30:50 -0800

Today (05/19/09) was Hepatitis Awareness Day in the United States and around the World. Many local health departments marked the occasion by offering free vaccines for Hepatitis A & B.

From the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH), we pass on this Hepatitis Awareness Day statement:

“Liver disease is a serious public health issue in our nation, as it currently affects more than 30 million Americans. Diseases such as Hepatitis are often referred to as “silent diseases” because liver damage can gradually occur over many years before being discovered, which often happens once the damage is irreparable,” stated DPH Commissioner Dr. J. Robert Galvin. “Nationally, hepatitis B and C are major causes of liver cancer, liver transplantation and even death.”

Hepatitis does not discriminate and affects all ages, genders, races, ethnicities and income levels. Learning about liver wellness, hepatitis A and B vaccination (there is no vaccine for hepatitis C), and risk factors are important ways to recognize and prevent the spread of these diseases.

Dr. Galvin added that “hepatitis A and B are vaccine preventable diseases, yet they continue to be the most commonly reported vaccine preventable diseases. Getting vaccinated, especially if you are at high risk, provides the best protection from these diseases.”

Connecticut mandates that all newborns, infants and school-age children be vaccinated against hepatitis B. All pregnant women should be tested for hepatitis B during their prenatal care so that measures can be taken to prevent transmission to newborns.

Hepatitis A is most often spread through ingesting contaminated food or water or by certain sexual practices and has been associated with large outbreaks of disease.

Claims Settled In La Mesa's Chipotle Grill Hepatitis A 2008 Outbreak

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Attorney) — Sun, 03 May 2009 18:37:07 -0800

In late April 2008, San Diego County health officials announced that a number of Hepatitis A (HAV)infections had been traced to a Chipotle Grill restaurant in La Mesa, California, near San Diego. Officials advised customers who had eaten at the restaurant between March 1 and April 22 that they might be at risk for infection. As of early May, more than twenty people who ate at the La Mesa restaurant have tested positive for HAV infection. Several of those victims contacted Marler Clark for assistance with their cases. All claims have been settled.
Hepatitis A is a food borne virus that can be passed by infected food handlers to consumers. The virus attacks the liver, and symptoms can include nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, dark urine, fever, chills, fatigue, body aches, loss of appetite, and later on, jaundice. In extreme cases, liver failure can result. The virus has a long incubation period, and symptoms may not appear for fifteen to fifty days.

Produce Worker At Littleton, CO Albertson's Tests Positive For Hepatitis A

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Attorney) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:17:15 -0800

Did you ever notice the people in the produce department at the grocery store are always the friendliest? That's probably no comfort to customers at the Albertson's in Littleton, CO who are being told that if they consumed store produced produce they should think about getting Hepatitis A vaccine shots.

The local health department will be offer vaccinations at Columbine United Church at 6375 South Platte Canyon Road Monday from 4 to 9 p.m. and Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The church is at South Platte Canyon Road and West Coal Mine Avenue, about one-half mile south of the Albertsons.

Health officials are warning those who have bought green onions, celery that has had the leaves trimmed, any lettuce that was not pre-bagged, any pre-cut watermelon, cantaloupe or honeydew melon. They said the overall risk was low as the employee who tested positive for Hepatitis A did practice both thorough hand-washing and wore gloves.

However, about 3,000 food items were subject to exposure. For more, check out the story in Denver's last remaining daily newspaper here.

Richard Miller - One Man's Hepatitis A Story

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Attorney) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:01:47 -0800

In late October 2003, Beaver County ER doctors reported an alarming number of Hepatitis A cases.

Investigators from the Pennsylvania Department of Health initiated an investigation immediately and discovered that many, if not all, cases had eaten at Chi Chi’s restaurant in Monaca, Pennsylvania’s Beaver Valley Mall.

Along with the health department, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted further studies of the outbreak. Preliminary analysis of a case-control study suggested that green onions were the probable source of the outbreak.

The onions had been shipped to the restaurant in boxes and were stored and refrigerated in buckets of ice. They were eventually chopped up and served in various dishes at the restaurant, often uncooked, as in the preparation of mild salsa.

“Preliminary trace-back information indicated that the green onions supplied to Chi Chi’s had been grown in Mexico.” Ultimately, over 650 people were sickened in the outbreak. The victims included at least thirteen Chi Chi’s employees and numerous residents of six other states. Four people died from their injuries, and more than 9,000 people obtained immune globulin shots as protection against the virus.

This is the story of one of those cases (click below to see short quicktime video):

Hard To Treat Diseases (HTDS) Offers Hepatitis A Vaccine in India

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Lawyer) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:13:15 -0800

This release from a single company speaks volumes about the size of the Hepatitis A vaccine market in India, which has developed in only the last few years. It says:

Hard To Treat Diseases (HTDS) says its China based operating subsidiary Mellow Hope has surpassed sales of 200,000 units of Hepatitis A Vaccine in India.

The Hepatitis A Vaccine (BIOVAC-A) was first launched in the market of India in December, 2005.

Terry Yuan, CEO added "Because our product is single-dose vaccine, so (sic) our price is almost the half of other multinational competitors' price. Our sales volume keeps growing continuously. To well promote our AV and convince the local people that our product is equal or better to our multinational competitors, we had conducted a Multi-centric clinical trial in 2007. The results proved that our product offers great safety and efficacy. Subsequently, this trial report was published in the International Journal. As a company, we hold two seminars' every year, one in India and one in China".

The company will provide further details as they become available.

VA Says Its Equipment Was Contaminated; Vets Testing Positive For Viral Infections, Including Hepatitis

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Lawyer) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:37:17 -0800

Boy, talk about another reason to get your Hepatitis A vaccine! The Veterans Administration (VA) has acknowledged that 16 patients exposed to contaminated equipment at its medical facilities have tested positive for viral infections, including hepatitis.

According to CBS News:

VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts said Friday that 10 colonoscopy patients from the VA medical center in Murfreesboro, Tenn., tested positive for hepatitis. She said six patients from a VA clinic in Augusta, Ga., tested positive for unspecified viral infections.

The number of reported infections could rise. Roberts says the department doesn't yet have results from most of more than 10,000 veterans warned to get blood tests because they could have been exposed to contamination. Patients at a medical center in Miami also were urged to get tested.

All three sites failed to properly sterilize equipment between treatments.

The VA Medical Center in Murfreesboro is named for World War I hero Alvin C. York, who was a native of Pall Mall, Tenn. For more about this distributing report, check here.

Bodies & Body Parts From War in Mexico Foul Imperial Beach Waters, But Surf Is Up!

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Attorney) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:32:10 -0800

The war in Mexico between drug dealers and the government last year saw more than 5,300 killed, including 843 just across border in the 120-year old city of Tijuana. Its neighbor to the north is Imperial Beach, CA.

North and south of the Imperial Beach Pier is the Tijuana Estuary at the famed Boca Rio beachbreak. The Tijuana Sloughs is a fabled big-wave surf spot is now almost unrideable due to raw toxic sewage that flows into the break from the Tijuana River.

Now the war in Mexico is literally lapping up against Imperial Beach because so many dead bodies and dismembered bodies are being flushed into the area from the river that the danger to surfers has never been so high.

Because warning signs and health risk notices are not keeping surfers away, a nonprofit environmental group based in Imperial Group called WildCoast, is offering free Hepatitis A vaccines for surfers. In partnership with San Diego State University's Graduate School of Public Health, WildCoast is offering the vaccines at the Imperial Beach Health Center.

For more from KPBS, go here.

Hep A Shots Advised If You Are In "Close Contact" With Newly Adopted

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Attorney) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 15:57:59 -0800

It use to be that if you were going to pick up children for adoption in a foreign country you were advised to get a Hepatitis A shot before departure. In a new advisory, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says if you are going to come into "close contact" with newly adopted children from a foreign country, you should get a Hepatitis A vaccine even if you never leave the good old USA.

Reuters reports:

"Recently, there have been cases of family members who have gotten sick after kids have been adopted," said Dr. Cindy Weinbaum, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC. She said there had been about 20 cases, including a 51-year-old adoptive grandmother who became gravely ill.

Weinbaum said the recommendations cover adoptions from countries with a high or intermediate infection risk.

"That includes most of the world. All that (it) excludes is North America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan," she said.

For more on the CDC advisory, go here.

New Study Shows How Lasting Hepatitis A Shots Can Be

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Lawyer) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:02:47 -0800

One time exposure to contaminated food can give you the debilitating illness of Hepatitis A.
Now, however, comes word from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium in Anchorage that the antibodies against Hepatitis A keep working for up to 27 years after vaccination.

Reuters Health, reporting on a recently published article in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, says:

Lead author Dr. Laura L. Hammitt, now at the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Welcome Trust Collaboration in Kilifi, and colleagues enrolled 144 children and 128 adults who responded to a three-shot series of hepatitis A vaccine to assess the persistence of antibodies.

The adults had received a primary dose of hepatitis A vaccine, with a second vaccination given 1 month later and a third given 12 months after the first.

The children were between 3 and 6 years of age and were given three doses at various intervals over the course of a year.

Hammitt's team collected blood samples 1 month after vaccination and again 1 to 10 years after vaccination to test for anti-hepatitis A antibodies. The researchers calculated long-term antibody persistence based on the observed rate of decline in concentrations.

"The estimated duration of antibody persistence was 21-27 years, depending on the vaccination schedule," Hammitt and colleagues write in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Get more from Reuters Health here.

New Source of Information on Hepatitis A For MSMs

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Attorney) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:10:21 -0800

Hepatitis A is covered in a new education website launched by the American Social Health Association (ASHA) with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The target audience is: Men Who Have Sex with Men, which the social health group refers to as MSMs.

We hope especially that the MSMs who work in the restaurant industry might take a look at the Hep A portion of the website because language is used to get the information across. According to the announcement:

This new Website, which was developed with extensive feedback from MSM, offers visitors comprehensive information regarding transmission, prevention, and treatment of hepatitis A, B, and C. In addition to boosting awareness among the MSM online community about the risk factors for hepatitis, this resource seeks to increase intentions among this population to engage in safer sex practices and to receive hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccinations.

Visit the Website at www.ashastd.org.

Chinese Tourists Will Not Bring Hepatitis A Outbreak To Taiwan

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Lawyer) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:28:32 -0800

We cannot say we were really worried about this one. Regular tourism between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan has been underway since last July. Apparently worry-warts have been concerned that the mainland tourists might spread Hepatitis A to residents of the island nation.

With Taiwan and China getting along, we'd hate to see anything come between them. After all, once enough of those pink-shirted mainland tourists come visiting the island, could anything other than lasting peace be far behind?

So, this is good news. The Taiwan News is reporting today that Chinese tourists’ arrivals won’t cause hepatitis A epidemic according to its Centers for Disease Control. According The News:

"Hepatitis A infection is highly related to environmental hygiene,... Taiwan's basic public health conditions have been largely improved compared to 20 years ago. It is unlikely that (the disease) will break out here," said Lin Ting, CDC deputy director-general.

Lin said that even if Chinese tourists with hepatitis A come to Taiwan and spread the virus, there would be only a few individual cases, not an epidemic.

But he noted that most young Taiwanese people under age 30 do not have the antibody to hepatitis A. If these people make frequent visits to Southeast Asia and mainland China and stay there for a long period of time, they must be careful about eating local food and environmental hygiene, to prevent from getting hepatitis A.

Getting a vaccination is the most efficient way to avoid contracting the infectious disease, Lin said, encouraging people to be vaccinated.

For more, go here.

More Hepatitis A Now Expected In Maine

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Lawyer) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:18:00 -0800

Health professionals in Maine are on the lookout this week for more cases of Hepatitis A. After a sixth school child was diagnosed with Hepatitis A it brought the total number of cases in the Kennebunk/Kennebunkport area to 12.

Officials now think that someone who traveled overseas to an area where Hepatitis A is common brought the disease back to Maine and that is what caused others to get it. The Maine-based news service, seacoastonline says:

Last week, district officials, school physician and local pediatrician Don Burgess and the Maine Center for Disease Control's Andy Pelletier met with parents to try to address their concerns. While nearly 80 percent of the school's students have received the hepatitis A vaccine, Pelletier expressed concern that 20 percent had not. Those students are vulnerable to the infection, he said.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, hepatitis A is "an acute liver disease caused by the hepatitis A virus (HAV), lasting from a few weeks to several months. It does not lead to chronic infection." It is transmitted through the ingestion of fecal matter and from close person-to-person contact or ingestion of contaminated food or drinks.

For more, go here.

Kennebunkport Still Does Not Have Hepatitis A Under Control

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Attorney) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:26:34 -0800

After a fourth and now a fifth case of Hepatitis A turned up in the Kennebunkport Consolidated Schools, upset parents say they were not informed soon enough by school officials.

According to Maine news site, seacoastonline. com:

Following news that a fifth child has been diagnosed with hepatitis A, parents questioned the MSAD 71 School Board on Monday as to why all parents weren't notified after the initial outbreak at Consolidated School.

"We don't care who it is, but we want to know that it is (real)," said mother Amy Johnson.

The first two cases were diagnosed in September, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control, and both children were members of the same family. At that time, only students in those two classes were notified of the outbreak.

Three more cases were diagnosed at Consolidated between late October and early November. Six additional cases have been diagnosed in the Kennebunk/Kennebunkport area, all involving family members of the first two children.

The school district did send out a letter to all parents last week about the outbreak. For more, go here.

Maine Combats Hepatitis A Outbreak Involving School

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Lawyer) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:36:27 -0800

The Maine Center for Disease Control yesterday ordered 170 students vaccinated for Hepatitis A.

The shots were provided to those enrolled at the Kennebunkport Consolidated School after three children at the school were diagnosed with the virus in recent weeks.

Best known for the nearby compound of former President George H.W. Bush (see picture), the Kennebunkport area has seen nine cases of Hepatitis A. Eight involved a single family and the ninth case was linked to that family through the school.

Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the Maine CDC, told Seacoastonline that officials suspect that an adult who recently traveled to a country where hepatitis A is prevalent might have brought the virus back to Kennebunkport.

A letter is being sent out to parents today. For details, go here.

Is A South African Province Covering Up Hepatitis A and Meningitis Outbreaks?

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Attorney) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:45:04 -0800

Whenever we get too critical of how quick and effective our governments are in North America when it comes to dealing in an up front and honest manner with we citizens, we have only look around the globe to understand how lucky we really are.

After China put pressure of its trial lawyers to drop food-borne illness claims in the Melamine scandal, we turn to South Africa to find a provincial government that just wants a city to cover up a Hepatitis A outbreak and more.

A little geography lesson first. Mpumalanga is one of 9 provinces in South Africa, the nation of 50 million that is governed by Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. There are over 3 million people living in Mpumalanga.

Bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever are among the water and food-borne illnesses for which there is an intermediate risk in South Africa, according to international health experts.

So when the Municipality of Mbombela issued this warning...

“There is an outbreak of hepatitis A and meningitis around White River and Nelspruit. If one experiences one or more of symptoms like headache, fever, neck stiffness and fatigue, please consult the nearest clinic, hospital or your doctor.”

...it probably does not come as a surprise.

But guess who did not like it? According to the Sowetan, a South African news service:

The Mpumalanga provincial government has ordered the Mbombela municipality to retract its warning to the public about outbreaks of meningitis and hepatitis in the area.

Provincial health department spokesman Mpho Gabashane said: “We only saw the warning statement released by the municipality, and at the moment we are yet to receive a formal report.”

While there appears to be some confusion between the municipality and the province, there are also indications that health-related news in the area are ripe with political overtones. Go here, for more.

Meet the Hepatitis A-Fighting Aquaduct Bike

marler@marlerclark.com (Hepatitis A Attorney) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:59:59 -0800

Okay, the World Health Organization figures one billion people do not have access to any sort of improved drinking water source. As a result, a growing number of health issues face developing countries such as diarrhoeal disease, schistosom`iasis, trachoma, intestinal helminths (ascariasis, trichuriasis and hookworm) and hepatitis A.

So what could better than the Aquaduct is “a pedal-powered concept vehicle that transports, filters, and stores water.” Pedal to the well, fill up the tank and by the time you’re home you have 8 liters of purified water.

See here for more.