Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• SHAW, FREDERIC E.
• SUDMAN, JON H.
• SMITH, SUZANNE M.
• WILLIAMS, DENISE L.
• KAPELL, LYDIA A.
• HADLER, STEPHEN C.
• HALPIN, THOMAS J.
• MAYNARD, JAMES E.

Titel

A COMMUNITY-WIDE EPIDEMIC OF HEPATITIS A IN OHIO

Ist Teil von

• American journal of epidemiology, 1986-06, Vol.123 (6), p.1057-1065

Ort / Verlag

Cary, NC: Oxford University Press

Erscheinungsjahr

1986

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Between June 1, 1983 and August 30, 1984, an epidemic involving 313 cases of hepatitis A occurred in Muskingum County, Ohio. One hundred ninety-seven cases occurred in the city of Zanesvflle, with 34.7% of cases concentrated in two neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city. Case characteristics were similar to those reported in previous community-wide outbreaks, including a maximum attack rate among 5–9-year-olds and a very low attack rate in adults over 30 years. Case households were larger, and their members were less educated than the mean for households in the city. Forty-eight per cent of the cases reported exposures to other cases which temporally could have been the source of infection. A case-control study failed to show differences in several behavioral factors between case and control households, but did confirm that lower socioeconomic status was a risk factor for the disease. Broad use of immunoglobulin was effective in preventing clinical disease among family contacts, but did not stop the outbreak. This outbreak typifies a genre of hepatitis A epidemic transmitted from person to person in which exact routes of spread are poorty understood and control is difficult. Lower socioeconomic status may be a marker for some unidentified behaviors that promote hepatitis A transmission.