Hepatitis A in day care centre

A focal outbreak of hepatitis was detected in a day-care centre for children centrally located in Pune. The source of infection was suspected to be an 11-year-old child who probably got the infection from his school. Seven out of 15 children from day-care centre developed clinical hepatitis. Two cases of secondary infection were identified among the family contacts of infected children. Sera from all the nine sick children were positive for anti-hepatitis A virus-IgM antibodies. A stool sample from a case of secondary infection showed presence of HAV-RNA by RT-nested PCR. These findings proved that the outbreak was caused by hepatitis A virus.

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