The health system in the province of Cienfuegos maintains close epidemiological surveillance in the popular council of Reina, in the city of Cienfuegos, where they report an increase in cases of viral hepatitis type A. Dr. Livan Rojas Lantigua, director of health management of The General Directorate of Health in the southern territory, reported in a press conference that most of the cases are concentrated in four blocks of that district, where they carry out a focus control of the disease, which has an incubation period which varies between 15 and 50 days. The Health Area of this popular council carries out various actions in the community to increase the perception of risk of contracting the virus and a temporary working group is activated, which meets daily with the participation of the municipal government, the general health directorate, the Provincial Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology (CPHEM) and other organizations and institutions linked to basic services to the population. These days, the Aqueduct and Sewer and Communal Services companies are intensifying the collection of garbage and elimination of micro-landfills, the repair of leaks and obstructions in the hydraulic networks and installed a hypochlorinator, treatment equipment for chlorination and disinfection of water. Reina families are also made easier to purchase sodium hypochlorite in pharmacies. CPHEM specialists remember that the hepatitis A virus is transmitted mainly by the fecal-oral route, that is, when an uninfected person ingests water or food contaminated by feces from an infected person. In families, this can happen if the hands of the person in charge of cooking are dirty.
Symptoms of hepatitis A
Hepatitis A symptoms usually appear a few weeks after you had the virus. However, not all people with hepatitis A show symptoms. If you have symptoms, they could include the following:
- Unusual tiredness and weakness
- Sudden nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea
- Abdominal pain or discomfort, especially in the upper right area below the lower ribs, which is above the liver
- Clay-colored or gray stools
- Loss of appetite
- Low fever
- dark urine
- Joint pain
- Yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice)
- intense itching
