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An Outbreak of Hepatitis a Among Homosexual Men in Melbourne
Author(s) -
Stewart Tony,
Crofts Nick
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1993.tb121865.x
Subject(s) - outbreak , seroprevalence , medicine , hepatitis a , demography , hepatitis a virus , epidemiology , contact tracing , men who have sex with men , serology , environmental health , hepatitis , syphilis , virology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , immunology , covid-19 , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , virus , sociology , antibody
Objective To describe an outbreak of hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection that occurred in Melbourne in 1991. Design: (i) We reviewed Health Department Victoria surveillance data from 1989 to 1991 (primary surveillance) and identified all notified cases of HAV infection with an onset of illness between 1 January and 31 December 1991 (secondary surveillance data), (ii) We studied HAV seroprevalence in Melbourne among homosexual men attending gay venues. Results: (i) In the two years 1989‐1990 there were only 55 notifications of HAV infection to Health Department Victoria, with a male:female ratio of 1.2:1. Of the 495 notifications for 1991, 407 (82%) were male, of whom 210 (52%) were known to be homosexual. Many reported sexual and social contact at Melbourne's gay venues and with the Sydney gay community, (ii) Of men attending gay venues, 27% had serological evidence of past infection with HAV, compared with 45.8% in a 1981 Melbourne study. Conclusion: The outbreak of HAV infection in Victoria largely affected homosexual males in their sexually active years. Contact with the Sydney gay community was commonly reported.