Gympie residents warned on hepatitis A outbreak

The public health service is working with local schools and urging residents to be vigilant as Gympie Hospital handles a Hepatitis A cluster.

An outbreak of Hepatitis A within a family is being managed at Gympie Hospital, with the health service calling for other residents to keep an eye out for symptoms.

An outbreak of Hepatitis A within a Gympie family has sparked calls for other residents to keep an eye out for symptoms.

The Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service said in a statement it is managing multiple cases of the viral disease at the Gympie Hospital.

The original exposure occurred at the hospital in a person returning from overseas in January.

“SCHHS Public Health Unit is liaising with schools the positive cases attended providing them with parent letters, information and advice,” the statement says.

“Hepatitis A is an acute viral infection, which can be spread from person to person by the faecal oral route (the faeces of an infectious person has contaminated something that is put into someone else’s mouth).”

Symptoms include fever, generalised aches and pains, nausea, lack of appetite, and abdominal discomfort.

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Dark urine is usually the first specific sign of acute hepatitis A.

This was usually followed days later by jaundice – the yellowing of skin and eyes – and pale coloured bowel motions.

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Most people begin feeling better by the third week of the infection.

“The disease is usually more serious in adults than children,” the service says in the statement.

“ In adults, hepatitis A occasionally presents as a serious, disabling disease lasting several months.

“Most young children with hepatitis A have few, if any, symptoms so the infection can go unrecognised.

“They can, however, easily infect other children and adults.”

They said the time between exposure and symptoms averages about four weeks, although it could occur over any time from two to seven weeks.

Any parent or child who develops symptoms is urged to go to the hospital.

Originally published as Gympie residents warned on hepatitis A outbreak