September 16, 2005
The Moscow Times
More than 100 new cases of hepatitis A were recorded in Nizhny Novgorod on Thursday, bringing the total number of people hospitalized to 466, including 70 children, local health officials said.
“We expect the number of infections to grow by about 100 people per day,” said Irina Kiryanova, the deputy director of the region’s health department, Interfax reported.
Meanwhile, epidemiologists were trying to determine the cause of the outbreak. The region’s chief doctor, Yevgeny Petrov, said that the infection could have been transmitted through water and sewage systems, as well as through infected food.
Samples of water were being analyzed but the results would be ready only Monday, Petrov said.
The outbreak is the second of hepatitis A in the country this year. In June, nearly 600 people in the Tver region town of Rzhev were diagnosed with the disease. Tainted beverages from the local Rzhevpivo brewery were blamed for the outbreak.