Hoping to avoid a surge in Hepatitis A cases in Maine, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention this week issued recommendations for protecting against the highly transmissible viral disease.
Four cases of Hepatitis A have been reported statewide in the past four months, for a total of six cases so far in all of 2017.
“This is not an outbreak, and we don’t want an outbreak,” said State Epidemiologist Siiri Bennett.
She would not specify the exact dates of the 2017 cases or say where in Maine they were identified.
“We can’t talk about individual cases,” she said. “They’re scattered all across the state.”
However, she said, other states are grappling with serious outbreaks of Hepatitis A, and Maine is not immune.
“The message we want to get out is that this is a preventable illness,” she said.
The best line of defense is a widely available vaccine, she said, along with careful handwashing, safe food handling and other hygienic practices.
