Hepatitis A, E spreads in crowd

Hyderabad: People attending mass gatherings often contact Hepatitis A and E as hygiene conditions are compromised. Dr B. Prabhakar, consultant medical gastroenterologist said, “Sporadic epidemic is caused by Hepatitis E as the challenge is access to clean drinking water and also sanitation. Even in slums, overcrowding in one room and also poor hygiene spreads the virus. The infection then leads to high secondary attack and if not diagnosed on time, can be fatal.”

A senior doctor said, “We have seen huge congregations in recent times which was not the case earlier. As the numbers now increase, the population exposed to the disease is also high. Hence prevention is very important in terms of clean drinking water, sanitation and hand-washing.”

Senior hepatologist Dr A.C. Anand said, “Hepatitis E is most common in developing countries due to inadequate environmental sanitation leading to contamination of water supply. This is found to be one of the major causes of the disease. And the highest risk is seen in pregnant women where the mortality rate is as high as 25 per cent with the infection.”