Hepatitis A Returns Hepatitis A, like a number of other diseases, is both seasonal and periodic. But there are periodic cycles of high and low prevalence which, for a community of our size and composition, are about four years duration. We have been surprised at the degree of change in the last two months, from 30 cases in July, to 51 cases in August, to 84 cases in September. It is believed that the periodic cycles are a function of fluctuating immunity in the population, but the rapidity of this rise suggests that we may have some other factors that we have not identified. We are always looking for sites for increased disease spread and attempting to prevent outbreaks.
Examples are child day care facilities and food establishments.
Although we have conducted some investigations of food establishments in this time period, we do not think that any of them have contributed significantly to this increase. We are doing a more detailed epidemiologic study and will report our findings to you. At this time, we would like health providers to be aware of the increase, to have a high index of suspicion for cases, and to report cases to the Health Department. Of the six children reported, one was an infant, three were one year of age, and two were seven and eleven years old. The remaining five had pulmonary TB but only three had mild respiratory symptoms.