Hepatitis Outbreak in the West

Peter Allen

Today, the Ministry of Health is working to contain a localized outbreak of Hepatitis A at a government school in Buena Vista, Cayo. According to reports, there was one case of the virus reported before Christmas, and since then at least twenty more cases which have resulted in much concern. The outbreak in a public school has been kept under the radar by the Ministry of Health. In fact, today when the media asked C.E.O. Peter Allen about it, he was surprised by the fact that the news had gotten out. But, of course, he claims that the Ministry seems to have the situation under control.

Peter Allen, C.E.O., Ministry of Health

“I don’t know why I am surprised that the media knows more about these things than I ever expect them to but indeed, we appear to have an outbreak of Hepatitis A in that particular school. Hepatitis A is a food or water borne disease. Our staff has been working with the school for the last week and we were presenting with a parent-teacher association meeting just last night in the village. We believe that the outbreak is controlled, but we are still searching for what in these type of cases, we call the index case—the primary case from which the other cases may have become infected. So we are still working on that, but we do believe we have it under control. We are actively engaged from the ministry of health with the staff of the school, with the parents of the children and of course with the children themselves.”

The symptoms of Hepatitis A are similar to those of the flu. It is passed through close contact with infected persons.