Wayne County is now one of the country’s leaders when it comes to cases of Hepatitis A.
So far this year, there have been 85 cases of Hep A in Wayne County, the most cases in all of Indiana. Officials with the Wayne County Health Department say they have seen roughly 14 new cases emerge within the last week or so.
“Wayne County is experiencing a huge problem with Hepatitis A right now,” environmental health specialist supervisor Mark Linderman said.
According to Linderman, a big part of the problem in Wayne County circles around education. He says many people either don’t know about Hepatitis A, don’t know how it’s contracted, or don’t know how to prevent it.
“Believing that it just comes from restaurants is a mistake. You can get hepatitis A from touching anything that’s infected with Hepatitis A, be that money, or a keyboard, door knobs, or whatever.” Linderman said.
“Hepatitis A is not a food borne illness. It is a fecal oral illness that anybody can get from anyplace regardless of age, occupation or what have you,” he added.
The 85 infections now places Wayne County at No. 10 on the list of nationwide infections. Statewide 414 cases of Hep A have been reported. There has also been 180 hospitalizations and 1 death due to the disease, according to the state health department.