Understanding Hepatitis A: Prevention, Symptoms, and Updates from Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health

2023-08-26 06:13:00

The Ministry of Public Health responded “to what is being circulated in some media outlets regarding the spread of the “hepatitis A” disease in the Baalbek-Hermel governorate,” stressing that “the millennial viral hepatitis disease is endemic in Lebanon, which means that cases are recorded in more than one Lebanese region annually over the course of a year.” general”.

She said: “Lebanon has recorded an increase in the number of cases from the beginning of 2023 to date compared to the same period last year, especially in the districts of Tripoli, Akkar, Miniyeh al-Danniyeh and Baalbek, where the town of Arsal in particular witnessed a significant increase in the number of cases.” To date, 1785 cases, of which 204 are in Baalbek.

She added, “The epidemiological surveillance team of the Ministry collects water samples from the areas with the most cases recorded, in order to examine them in the water laboratories of government hospitals.”

She recalled the characteristics of the disease and its prevention, stressing the following:

– Hepatitis A virus is transmitted through the fecal-oral route, especially through the consumption of contaminated water or food, and through contaminated hands.

The incubation period (from the time the virus enters the human body until symptoms appear) ranges from 14 to 28 days.

Symptoms include fever (high temperature), yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), loss of appetite, diarrhea with pale stools, dark urine, and joint pain. Symptoms are often mild and inconspicuous in infants and young children.

Measures to prevent and control disease include consuming food and water of safe origin (or chlorinating it when needed), maintaining personal hygiene, washing hands (especially before preparing and eating food, following using the toilet and following changing diapers) and safely disposing of solid and liquid waste, in addition to receive the vaccine.”

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