Almost 25,000 Infected With Hepatitis A After 30 Months, 244 Deaths

Food and water contamination are part of the mix and infected restaurant workers around the country are responsible for spreading hepatitis A from at-risk groups to the general population.   By all means, during the 30-month period from March 2017 to August 2019,  the number of hepatitis A infections has reached 24,952 with 14,984 or 60 percent requiring hospitalization. And 244 deaths are attributed to the hepatitis A infections.

High-risk groups for or acquiring HAV infection or developing serious complications from HAV infection in these outbreaks include:

• Injection or non-injection drug users.
• People living without housing.
• Men who have sex with men.
• Incarcerated or recently incarcerated people
• Anyone with chronic liver disease, including cirrhosis, hepatitis B, or C.

NR: not publicly reported

1. “Outbreak-associated” status is currently determined at the state level in accordance with each state’s respective outbreak case definition.
2.  
3. Outbreak-related hepatitis A deaths are defined at the state level in accordance with each state’s respective hepatitis A-related death definition. Some states are reviewing death certificates on a regular basis to actively find hepatitis A-related deaths, while other states are utilizing passive surveillance.
4.  
5. Outbreak start date is defined at the state level and may represent the earliest onset date of an outbreak case (AR, AZ, UT), the left censor date for which cases are considered part of the outbreak based on the state outbreak case definition (AL, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MI, MN, MO, MS, NV, NH, NJ, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, WA), or when a state declared a hepatitis A outbreak (NM, WV).

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