VINNYTSIA: Schools will move to an online regime starting from Monday in Ukraine’s central city of Vinnytsia following a Hepatitis A outbreak that sent scores of children and adults to the hospital, the country’s chief sanitary official said over the weekend.
Ukraine’s Chief Sanitary Doctor, Ihor Kuzin, who also serves as the deputy health minister, emphasized the immediate need to identify the outbreak’s epicentre and its causes to swiftly contain the spread of Hepatitis A within the population. He shared this information on his Facebook page last Saturday.
As of now, 141 individuals in both the city and its surrounding region are hospitalized. Vinnytsia, formerly home to approximately 370,000 residents before the war, is the administrative hub of the Vinnytsia region in central Ukraine.
Hepatitis A, according to information from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a highly contagious, short-term liver infection that can be transmitted through close personal contact or consumption of contaminated food and beverages. Most individuals who contract Hepatitis A experience sickness for several weeks to several months but typically make a full recovery unless they belong to a high-risk group or have pre-existing health conditions.
Kuzin also mentioned that, currently, there is no single identified cause for the outbreak. Efforts are underway to analyze the sources of transmission and collaborate with the population, particularly in establishing a network of individuals who may have had contact with the virus.
