Surveillance of hepatitis A virus in urban sewages and comparison with cases notified in the course of an outbreak, Italy 2013.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Over the past 20 years, Hepatitis A notifications in Italy have been in decline. Since the beginning of 2013 however, Italy has been experiencing a foodborne hepatitis A outbreak caused by genotype IA, involving hundreds of cases. Consumption of frozen mixed berries was deemed the potential vehicle of infection.We aimed to investigate the spread of hepatitis A virus (HAV) in Italy through the monitoring of urban sewages collected at Wastewater Treatment Plants (WTPs) and a subsequent comparison of environmental surveillance data with data from the clinical surveillance performed during the epidemic.

Methods

The study covered 15 months, from July 2012 to September 2013, comprising the outbreak and the preceding six months. Environmental surveillance consisted of th

SUBMITTER: La Rosa G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4122772 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature