Health department reports 11 new hepatitis A cases
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM
Straub Medical Center nurse Janelle Carroll administered a Hepatitis A vaccine to Brian Murdock on Friday. An additional Hep A vaccine booster is required six months later is effective for about 25 years.
The state Department of Health says it has recorded 11 new cases of hepatitis A in Hawaii over the past week, up nearly 5 percent from last week.
This brings the total number of cases from the current outbreak to 252.
The department said today all of those sickened are adults. Sixty-six have been hospitalized.
Health officials traced the outbreak to frozen scallops served raw by a popular sushi chain on Oahu and Kauai. U.S. Food and Drug Administration tests later found hepatitis A in the scallops, which were imported from the Philippines.
The Genki Sushi chain closed 10 restaurants on Oahu and one on Kauai and began disinfecting them after the discovery.
3 responses to “Health department reports 11 new hepatitis A cases”
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And they are sure the source is ONLY scallops?
And the casualty count goes on. Time for everyone who can to be vaccinated. The DOH is just keeping a body count and they
have no plans or intent to do anything else. They could mandate that all food service workers be vaccinated but I do not expect that
they will show any leadership in this matter. They will proceed as I expect in a reactive manner rather than being proactive.
Those getting sick now are people who were directly infected by another infected person and not from eating contaminated raw scallops.
You should also take notice that either SA or the DOH or both are seemingly trying to keep a lid on the continued stream of new cases by
providing only a very limited amount of information as to who is becoming sick and where. Are all the cases still mainly on Oahu or
is it showing up on the other islands, the mainland and elsewhere. There is no way to determine given the dearth of information being
provided/reported.
It should be disclosed whether the new cases were from close contact with previously infected people. Are there any cases where anyone got infected from a secondary source such as a public rest room or door handle? What is the real risk of exposure?