AUTHORS
Manikandan Srinivasan, Kulandaipalayam Natarajan Sindhu, Senthil J Kumar, Priya Abraham, Shalini Anandan, Veeraraghavan Balaji, Venkata Raghava Mohan, Gagandeep Kang, Jacob John
ABSTRACT
We investigated an outbreak of hepatitis A infection among children in an urban settlement of Vellore, South India. A total of 58 cases of jaundice were reported between April and August 2019. Sera from children who presented with jaundice were tested for hepatitis A virus (HAV) IgM. HAV IgM was positive in 18 (94.7%) of the 19 cases tested. These children also received a blood culture at the same time, as a part of the ongoing Surveillance for Enteric Fever in India (SEFI). Blood cultures from three children with confirmed hepatitis A infection grew Salmonella sp.: two with Salmonella Typhi and one with Salmonella Poona. Salmonella Poona is being reported for the first time from India. The overall hospitalization rate during the outbreak was 21%. Outbreaks of hepatitis A continue to occur with substantial morbidity in children from endemic settings, with notable emergence of other concurrent enteric infections, thereby warranting continued surveillance.
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