ROME, Ga. — An outbreak of Hepatitis A cases continues to strike more and more people across Georgia, with the numbers growing almost daily.
Hepatitis A is a liver infection that can take months to cure, and one of the hardest-hit areas of the state is northwest Georgia, where Floyd County Sheriff Tim Burkhalter is so concerned that he’s inviting staff and jail inmates to get vaccinations right away.
In the 12 counties that make up the Northwest District of the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH), the agency said it usually confirms, on average, one case Hepatitis A each year.
But since June 2018, there have been 190 people in northwest Georgia known to have been infected with the illness. That's 43 percent of all of the 439 known Hepatitis A cases statewide, and the numbers are growing weekly.
"It is highly contagious and can spread throughout a community very quickly if not controlled," said Logan Boss of the Georgia Department of Public Health's Northwest Region.
Boss said a Hepatitis A outbreak in Tennessee is spreading into northwest Georgia and particularly into the counties along U.S. 27 and Interstate 75.
One vaccination can stop it for a lifetime.
Sheriff Burkhalter is the latest one in Georgia to offer the health department's free vaccinations to jail inmates and staff because people living in close quarters are at risk. Other high-risk groups include drug abusers.
"Hep-A is spread from person to person, usually through fecal-oral contamination, or through the consumption of contaminated food or liquid," Boss said.
Just this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was warning supermarket shoppers about possible Hepatitis A contamination in food -- in a certain brand of berries sold at Kroger called Private Selection.
Restaurant workers can also spread Hepatitis A unknowingly in food.
County health departments are offering free vaccinations to restaurant workers and everyone else and urging everyone to practice good hygiene, including frequent hand washing, to stop this outbreak from spreading.
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