A Community-wide epidemic of hepatitis A in Ohio
| Autor: | Thomas J. Halpin, Denise L. Williams, Lydia A. Kapell, James E. Maynard, Frederic E. Shaw, Suzanne M. Smith, Jon H. Sudman, Stephen C. Hadler |
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| Rok vydání: | 1986 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male Risk Adolescent Epidemiology Attack rate Disease Disease Outbreaks Sex Factors Medicine Humans Risk factor Child Socioeconomic status Ohio business.industry Transmission (medicine) Hepatobiliary disease Age Factors Hepatitis A Outbreak Infant Middle Aged medicine.disease Immunoglobulin M Socioeconomic Factors Child Preschool Immunology Female business Epidemiologic Methods Demography |
| Zdroj: | American journal of epidemiology. 123(6) |
| ISSN: | 0002-9262 |
| Popis: | 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 Zanesville, 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 poorly understood and control is difficult. Lower socioeconomic status may be a marker for some unidentified behaviors that promote hepatitis A transmission. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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