In a follow-up on the hepatitis A outbreak in the Czech Republic, there were 2,597 cases of hepatitis A detected in the Czech Republic this year through November 16, which is four times more than last year and the most since 1989, according to the country’s NIH.
Since September, an average of over 100 new cases have been increasing per week. 29 people have died, compared to two in the whole of last year.
The most sick people are in Prague, where there are 1,108 recorded cases, which represents 42% of all cases in the Czech Republic. “In recent weeks, an increase in the number of cases has been recorded, especially in Prague, where the epidemic has spread beyond the community of risk individuals,” the SZÚ said. There were 418 cases in the Central Bohemian Region, and 201 in the Moravian-Silesian Region.
The highest number of cases in a year was recorded by doctors during a major epidemic in 1979, when there were over 32,000. In 1989, there were 2,624, and after that, except for three years, there were hundreds. Among this year’s more than 2,500 infected people, hygienists recorded 300 homeless people, 239 drug users, and 34 prisoners.
2,032 people were hospitalized in infectious disease wards due to hepatitis A, and another 150 in other healthcare facilities. 29 patients have died so far, eight more deaths in October, and none in November.
Hepatitis A and the Hep A vaccine
The deceased are more likely to be men, with an average age of 55. They are often drug users, homeless people or alcoholics.
“The risk of severe disease and death increases with age and is higher in people with chronic liver disease or weakened immunity,” wrote the SZÚ experts.
This year, doctors administered over 200,000 hepatitis A vaccines. Foreign batches of vaccines have arrived in the Czech Republic, for example from Sweden, the Netherlands, or Greece.