Multiple Modes of Hepatitis A Virus Transmission among Methamphetamine Users

Methamphetamine users are at increased risk of hepatitis A, but modes of transmission are unclear. The authors conducted a case-control study among methamphetamine users during an outbreak in Iowa in 1997. Twenty-eight reported, laboratory-confirmed, hepatitis A cases did not differ from 18 susceptible controls with respect to age, sex, or number of doses used. When compared with controls in multivariate analysis, case-patients were more likely to have injected methamphetamine (odds ratio (OR) = 5.5, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.1, 27), to have used methamphetamine with another case-patient (OR = 6.2, 95% CI: 0.95, 41), and to have used brown methamphetamine (OR = 5.5, 95% CI: 0.51, 59). Receptive needle sharing was reported by 10 of the 20 case-patients who injected. Methamphetamine use with another case-patient was also associated with hepatitis A in an analysis restricted to noninjectors (OR = 17, 95% CI: 1.0, 630). During this outbreak, hepatitis A may have been transmitted from person to person among methamphetamine users through the fecal-oral and the percutaneous routes. Methamphetamine users should be vaccinated against hepatitis A and should be given immune globulin if they used methamphetamine with a case-patient in the last 2 weeks. Persons who intend to continue using methamphetamine should be advised about safer practices.