The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday warned the public against consuming raw or undercooked shellfish after it was found to have been responsible for most of the hepatitis A infection cases reported in October and last month.
“A total of 30 people were reported to have contracted hepatitis A between Oct. 1 and last Sunday — sharply higher than four cases reported in the same period last year. Of the patients, 25 developed symptoms that were severe enough to require hospitalization,” CDC Director Kuo Hsu-sung (郭旭崧) told a press conference.
Kuo said that hepatitis A, a viral foodborne illness, has a relatively long incubation period of between 15 and 50 days, which is why it had been almost impossible for disease control specialists to trace the infection to the exact type of contaminated food in the past.
“Fortunately, through a combined use of DNA sequencing and food-history questionnaires, we were able to determine that the majority of the patients were infected by the virus via consumption of raw shellfish, such oysters and clams,” Kuo said.
CDC disease prevention physician Chen Wan-ching (陳婉青) said the 30 infected patients include 13 males and 17 females, ranging in age from 13 to 73, with the hepatitis A virus strains of 19, or 63 percent, of them showing high DNA sequence similarities.
The CDC was able to ascertain the source of the patients’ infections after analyzing the questionnaire results, which found that all of them had eaten shellfish before they were diagnosed with hepatitis A, with 79, 63 and 79 percent having consumed raw seafood, oysters and clams respectively, Chen said.
Academia Sinica researcher Chen Pei-jer (陳培哲), a viral hepatitis expert, said that due to the poor sanitary conditions in Taiwan decades ago, nearly 95 percent of people aged 60 and above are immune to hepatitis A because infection generates lifelong immunity.
“However, with significant improvements in overall quality of life, most people under the age of 40 have never contracted the virus and are therefore not immune,” Chen Pei-jer said.
That the majority of foods are mass produced only further increases the country’s risk of an epidemic outbreak, he said.
Chen said that while infection with hepatitis A is often asymptomatic in young patients, it could cause potentially fatal symptoms in older victims and people who are affected by chronic diseases or are hepatitis B or C carriers.
“Those in the high-risk group are strongly advised to get vaccinated against hepatitis A and avoid undercooked shellfish,” Chen said.
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