INFECTIVE HEPATITIS CASES SHOW BIG RISE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29021, 9 October 1959, Page 7

INFECTIVE HEPATITIS CASES SHOW BIG RISE

The incidence of infective hepatitis has increased considerably in Christchurch this year, 286 cases having been notified in the Christchurch health district to date, compared with 194 cases for the same period last year. No deaths. however, have occurred this year from the disease, although there were four deaths from January to October last year. Hepatitis is an acute virus infection, the second phase of which is commonly associated with jaundice. Symptoms include fever, a feeling of nausea with or without vomiting, lassitude, headache, and an upset stomach. The fever usually subsides In a few days, when bile may be detected in the urine, and jaundice appears. This second phase is of variable duration, with occasionally a chronic impairment of liver function.

The convalescence period may be prolonged. Overall, the disease varies greatly from a mild infection without jaundice to the rare, fulminating (and usually fatal), acute yellow atrophy of the liver. In epidemics, the proportion of fatal cases rarely exceeds .5 per cent. Incidence of Disease The incidence of infective hepatitis is spread over all age groups, but fatal cases almost always occurred in very young or very old persons, said the Medical Officer of Health (Dr A. Douglas) yesterday. The mode of transmission of the disease was person-to-person contact, and also respiratory transmission was possible, while epidemics had been related to contaminated water, food and milk.

When infective hepatitis first appeared in Christchurch, it was reported from an unsewered housing area, Dr. Douglas said Once the virus was established in the community it spread, and any person was liable to contract the infection.

“But then, when a certain proportion of the community has had the infection, a greater immunity is developed, and the incidence of hepatitis dies down,” Dr Douglas said. Community Sanitation

To control infective hepatitis, both good community sanitation and personal hygiene were essential, said Dr. Douglas. Good community sanitation involved correct sanitary disposal of wastes, controlled hygienii* water supplies and a high standard of both domestic and commercial food handling. “The standard of food handling should be a very high standard.” Dr. Douglas said. “Those diagnosed as suffering from infective hepatitis and handling food in their work should be kept off work until they recover. That is

one sort of quarantine measure we have adopted.”

The Department of Health did not require any specific quarantine period before a sufferer returned to work, nor was there any required quarantine period for contacts. Dr. Douglas said. Ideal Set-up

Ideally, community sanitation should consist of a piped sewerage system with adequate treatment and disposal to reduce health risk to a minimum, Dr. Douglas said. The source of community water supply should be guaranteed free from contamination by animals and humans, piped, and as a final safeguard in its journey from source to consumer should be chlorinated.

The Health Department had no actual power to prohibit unsatisfactory, unsewered housing subdivisions. but it was striving for the ideal position he had mentioned, Dr. Douglas said. “Of course, if a serious health nuisance or risk developed in an unsatisfactory subdivision, we might have to step in. and do something about it,” Dr. Douglas said.