The Daily Telegraph<\/a>.<\/p>\n‘You can get infected after ingesting the virus by: eating contaminated raw food… drinking contaminated water… handling soiled nappies, linen or towels of an infectious person; sharing personal items with an infectious person…having close or intimate contact with an infectious person.’<\/p>\n
![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/99808157-14855531-image-a-36_1751075554879.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
People can catch hepatitis A through close physical contact with someone who has it, including through oral or anal sex (spore-forming bacteria is pictured)<\/p>\n
![\"At](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/99808201-14855531-image-a-1_1751076281086.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
At least four European countries frequented by Australian tourists have reported outbreaks of the highly contagious Hepatitis A virus (pictured, travellers at Sydney Airport)<\/p>\n
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control issued a risk assessment on Hepatitis A (HAV) on June 18.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘This outbreak reminds us that hepatitis A can cause serious illness and death, especially among people with limited access to healthcare and basic hygiene,’ it said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Vaccination and good hygiene are the best ways to protect against hepatitis A infection.’<\/p>\n
The centre’s head of unit for One Health Related Diseases said the group would need to ‘strengthen outreach’ through access to vaccination and basic sanitation.<\/p>\n
Hepatitis A, which is caused by a virus spread via contaminated faeces making its way into food and drink, is not common in Australia.<\/p>\n
The virus typically spreads through a lack of clean water and by not cleaning things correctly, Hepatitis Australia said.<\/p>\n
People can also get hepatitis A through close physical contact with someone who has it, including through oral or anal sex.<\/p>\n
Almost everyone who has the virus will recover, but a small number can get very sick or die from liver failure.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/99808213-14855531-image-a-2_1751076283854.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A significant increase in the liver infection has been reported in Austria, Czechia, Hungary , and Slovakia from January to May – with a total of 2097 cases this year (stock)<\/p>\n
The majority of people affected are those aged 50 years or older, or who have other health issues (like hepatitis B or C).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smartraveller’s\u00a0advice for Australians to avoid infectious diseases including Hepatitis A also suggested a range of sanitation measures.<\/p>\n
‘Wash your hands often and use hand sanitiser before you eat,’ the advice said.<\/p>\n
‘Drink bottled water from a sealed bottle.’<\/p>\n
Smartraveller also suggested using water-sterilising tablets or filtration bottles to make tap water safe and washing fresh produce with bottled or sterilised water.<\/p>\n
Australians are advised to avoid drinks with ice cubes, uncooked or undercooked food, fresh salads and raw vegetables.<\/p>\n
They are also told to avoid contact with water or soil that may be contaminated with sewage and, in some places, swimming or wading in any fresh water.<\/p>\n
Signs of the infection include a high temperature, flu-like symptoms – such as fatigue, headache and muscle pains – feeling or being sick, abdominal pain, changes in bowel movements, pale grey coloured faeces and itchy skin.<\/p>\n
In more severe cases, a patient’s skin and eyes may appear yellow, a condition known as jaundice and a serious sign the liver is struggling to function correctly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least four European countries frequented by Australian tourists have reported outbreaks of the highly contagious Hepatitis A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[92,2000,299,5187,1824,2190,12,2558],"class_list":{"0":"post-220286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-hungary","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-slovakia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114758867132479620","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}