Hepatitis A ‘outbreak’ prompts Hong Kong health authorities to roll out free vaccines across the city
Thirteen cases of the virus were detected between September 2015 and January 2017
A spike in the number of reported hepatitis A cases among Hong Kong men who engage in sexual relations with other HIV-positive men has prompted health authorities to offer free vaccinations to “high-risk” individuals.
Ten cases of the virus were reported to the Integrated Treatment Centre between August last year and last month, according to Dr Wong Ka-hing, controller of the Centre of Health Protection. A further three cases were identified after the authority traced records back to September 2015.
The findings marked a significant increase from just zero to two detected cases among men per year between 2006 and 2015.
“Our epidemiological investigations so far have not identified a common food or water source among these cases,” Wong said.
“With reference from overseas experience, our epidemiological and laboratory investigations coupled with their clinical presentations suggest that male person-to-person sexual transmission may have accounted for this hepatitis A outbreak.”
According to Wong, laboratory information revealed four of the 13 cases were identical to one genetically distinguishable group within genotype 1A, and another eight cases to another group also within genotype 1A.
