Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Hepatitis A endemicity
This item isn't about illegals, but is about tiny immigrants and a serious disease.
On Feb. 25, 2009, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended routine hepatitis A vaccination for household members and other close personal contacts of adopted children newly arriving from countries with high or intermediate hepatitis A endemicity.
Hepatitis A virus can produce either asymptomatic or symptomatic infection in humans after an average incubation period of 28 days. Peak infectivity occurs during the 2 week period before onset of jaundice or elevation of liver enzymes, when concetration of virus in stool is highest.
During 1998-2008, approximately 18,000 children were adopted annually from foreign countries by families in the US. Approximately 99.8% of these children came from countries where hepatitis A is considered to be of high or intermediate endemicity and approximately 85% of [?] were aged <5 years. . . in the late 1990s, and currently, the largest numbers of adopted children come from Guatemala, China, Russia and Ethiopia. It is estimated the risk for hepatitis A among close personal contacts of international adoptees is estimated at 106 per 100,000 household contacts of international adoptees within the first 60 days of their arrival in the U.S. In the general population in 2007 is was 1.0 per 100,000 population. So, the ACIP is updating its guidelines on vaccinating persons who anticipate close personal contact with an international adoptee. Story from JAMA Dec. 16, 2009, pp. 2546-48.
If you hire an immigrant as a gardener, carpenter, babysitter, maid, household worker, restaurant waiter or busser, dish washer, janitor etc., and you don't know their health status because you don't know their immigration status, be aware of the symptoms and the risks. Beginning in January 2010, the U.S. is going to stop screening immigrants for HIV--apparently because it isn't spread through "casual" contact.
On Feb. 25, 2009, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended routine hepatitis A vaccination for household members and other close personal contacts of adopted children newly arriving from countries with high or intermediate hepatitis A endemicity.
Hepatitis A virus can produce either asymptomatic or symptomatic infection in humans after an average incubation period of 28 days. Peak infectivity occurs during the 2 week period before onset of jaundice or elevation of liver enzymes, when concetration of virus in stool is highest.
During 1998-2008, approximately 18,000 children were adopted annually from foreign countries by families in the US. Approximately 99.8% of these children came from countries where hepatitis A is considered to be of high or intermediate endemicity and approximately 85% of [?] were aged <5 years. . . in the late 1990s, and currently, the largest numbers of adopted children come from Guatemala, China, Russia and Ethiopia. It is estimated the risk for hepatitis A among close personal contacts of international adoptees is estimated at 106 per 100,000 household contacts of international adoptees within the first 60 days of their arrival in the U.S. In the general population in 2007 is was 1.0 per 100,000 population. So, the ACIP is updating its guidelines on vaccinating persons who anticipate close personal contact with an international adoptee. Story from JAMA Dec. 16, 2009, pp. 2546-48.
If you hire an immigrant as a gardener, carpenter, babysitter, maid, household worker, restaurant waiter or busser, dish washer, janitor etc., and you don't know their health status because you don't know their immigration status, be aware of the symptoms and the risks. Beginning in January 2010, the U.S. is going to stop screening immigrants for HIV--apparently because it isn't spread through "casual" contact.
Labels: hepatitis A
# posted by Norma : 12/23/2009 01:22:00 PM
