Morrow said it makes a difference whether the employees handled food before or after the cooking process. When it comes to cases involving restaurant workers, Dr. “One of the complicating things about Hepatitis A is that the incubation period can be a month and even a little bit longer than a month,” she explained. “They may be sharing all sorts of other things,” Morrow explains, “.and they may not have access to great hand hygiene, you know, access to sinks and soaps and everything else.”Ĭommon symptoms include fatigue, nausea, stomach pain and jaundice, which is the yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes. Morrow explains that in the RCAHD, Hepatitis A is disproportionately affecting people in Roanoke City, between the ages of 30 and 39, who are injection drug users. About 80 percent of those cases are in individuals identified as injection drug users with Substance Use Disorder. That official count so far is up to 58 since January 1, 2022. In a typical year, the health district would document two to three cases of Hepatitis A. And I know that is just really unappealing to think about that but that’s the primary mode of transmission.” So it’s fecal-oral meaning that it goes from our feces, our stool, into our mouths. And so anytime I go to the bathroom, if I have any contact between the stool and my hand, I can get it on my hand, if I don’t wash my hands very, very carefully I can then, you know, open a bag of potato chips, dip my hand in the bag of potato chips and then that whole bag of potato chips is now contaminated. So, let’s say I have Hep A, what happens is I start shedding that virus in my stool, in my poop, about two weeks before I might even know that I have any symptoms. “I know this can make people uncomfortable, but hand hygiene is incredibly important and Hepatitis A is infectious. That means you must ingest Hepatitis A to get it or have close, personal contact with an infected person. Hepatitis A is a fecal-orally transmitted virus, whereas Hepatitis B and C are bloodborne. Morrow explained that Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver.
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