The media office of the Ministry of Public Health issued the following statement:
“After reporting a number of cases of hepatitis A virus in Tripoli district, which numbered 49 cases to date, the ministry is investigating these cases distributed between Al-Qubba/Dahr Al-Maghar in particular, and other neighborhoods (Al-Tabbaneh, Al-Mina, Al-Badawi, Bab Al-Raml). A number of them were contacted to find out the pathological and epidemiological characteristics and to try to determine how they were exposed.”
She pointed out that “through its teams in the Tripoli district, the Health Authority in the North, the epidemiological surveillance teams and the Health Protection Directorate in the Ministry of Health, it has begun to give priority to examining drinking water. It has coordinated with the North Water Authority to collect water samples and examine them as soon as possible.”
She explained that “the millennium viral hepatitis is caused by a virus that is transmitted to humans through eating contaminated and undercooked foods, or drinking contaminated water or beverages. The incubation period extends from 15 to 50 days. Its most prominent symptoms are: fever, feeling tired, vomiting, nausea, and yellowing of the skin (Wheezing). Therefore, the Ministry of Health advises citizens not to eat uncooked foods, and not to drink water of unknown source or suspected of contamination, in addition to refraining from using this water to wash vegetables and fruits.”
The Ministry of Health urged citizens to “observe the conditions of personal hygiene at home, in terms of washing hands well after using the toilet, and before preparing food or eating it with hands, as the virus can be transmitted orally, when hands are contaminated with stool carrying the virus.”