The lack of hygiene in the preparation of food or the consumption of water with feces makes the problem of viral hepatitis A persist in Oaxaca. At epidemiological week number 20, the Health Services of Oaxaca reports 192 cases and four active outbreaks.
The Health Services of Oaxaca recognized that so far in 2019 there have been 12 outbreaks, 8 of which were controlled and closed, and the rest persists in the Coast, the Isthmus, the Mixteca and the Central Valleys.
The weekly average of new infections fluctuates between 9 and 10 cases, with men accounting for 59% of cases, above 78 women.
Oaxaca is the fifth state in the country that reports the highest incidence of this preventable disease, which although not malignant, for the president of the Mexican Association of Gastroenterology, Felipe Zamarripa Dorsey, does reveal the lack of hygiene in the preparation of foods.
The cases usually occur mostly in infants of school age, many of those who attend school without knowing they are sick and infect their classmates.
“Children who get sick start to get yellow, they feel tired, but in 95 percent of cases it is a benign disease,” he said.
In an interview, he said that health authorities should prohibit the sale of food on public roads in places where many cases are detected, because “something is happening” and “we should see what are the sources of contamination, especially with food that is not kept at the proper temperature. ”
He insisted that prohibiting the sale of food on the street would help to reduce cases of viral hepatitis A, because although food is usually very good and people are used to eating at these types of establishments, they are a source of infection and most do not comply with the preventive measures and the correct preparation.
So far this year only the municipality of Miahuatlán de Porfirio Diaz determined in April to prohibit the sale of food on public roads, before the outbreak of viral hepatitis A.