State health officials are warning that New Hampshire is in the early stages of a Hepatitis A outbreak.
Thirteen people across southern New Hampshire have become infected by the virus over the past three months. That's already more cases than in the average year.
Hepatitis A is transmitted by ingesting small undetected amounts of stool from an infected person.
At-risk populations include people experiencing homelessness, people using recreational drugs, men who have sex with men, and travelers to countries with high rates of the virus.
But State Epidemiologist Benjamin Chan says recent outbreaks in other states have shown the virus can easily spread beyond those groups.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report a few months ago looking at outbreaks in some of these states and up to a third of individuals that they studied did not report some of the more classic risk factors.”
Chan recommends that anyone at risk receive a Hepatitis A vaccine.
