Nothing to Mess With; Calhoun County Added To Hepatitis-A List

Calhoun County has been added to list of Michigan counties that are dealing with an ongoing Hepatitis-A outbreak.

The Calhoun County Health Department says "Hepatitis A is a serious, highly contagious liver disease caused by the Hepatitis A virus." Making it all the more difficult, doctors and researchers haven't been able to identify the source of this ongoing outbreak. Usually the source is feces coming into contact with food or water, but this time they're guessing it's person to person contact and illegal drug use.

The Health Department says those with a "history of injection and non-injection drug use, homelessness or transient housing, and incarceration" are most likely to be infected and hospitalized. The state says since the current outbreak began in the summer of 2016, over 650 cases have been found and 22 deaths, as a result.

The state says the two main things to do, is wash your hands, and get your kids vaccinated.

”Hepatitis A can range from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious illness lasting several months. Illness generally occurs two to six weeks after exposure to the hepatitis A virus. Symptoms include fatigue, fever, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, yellow skin (jaundice), dark urine, and pale stool. Hepatitis A can be transmitted up to two weeks before the onset of symptoms.” -MDHHS

If youi think you should check for Hepatitis-A, call the Calhoun Country Health Dept. at 269-969-6363, or go to the state's hepatitis website.

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