ABSTRACT
An outbreak of hepatitis A has been ongoing in Latvia with 2,817 confirmed cases reported between 20 November 2007 and 31 December 2008. Initially the spread of infection was due to transmission among drug users and other high-risk groups, as well as several outbreaks in Riga (affecting a school and a restaurant), but in the second half of the year led to a community-wide increase in the number of cases. Molecular analysis of 100 strains showed that 95 belonged to genotype IA, of which 89 were identical and six were single nucleotide variants of the same sequence.
Subject(s)
Disease Outbreaks/statistics & numerical data , Hepatitis A/epidemiology , Population Surveillance , Risk Assessment/methods , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Incidence , Infant , Latvia/epidemiology , Male , Middle Aged , Risk Factors , Young AdultABSTRACT
Since November 2007, an increase in the number of reported hepatitis A cases has been observed in Latvia. The aim of this report is to provide an update on the descriptive epidemiology of hepatitis A in Latvia and suggest some possible explanations of the recent increase in incidence.