title: [An outbreak of hepatitis A among intravenous drug addicts in Oslo 1995-96].
abstract: Intravenous drug abuse is a well-known risk factor for acquiring hepatitis A infection. Among drug abusers most cases are sporadic, but epidemic outbreaks may occur occasionally. In this article we describe an epidemic outbreak including 144 serologically proved cases of hepatitis A among intravenous heroin and amphetamine abusers in Oslo. The outbreak lasted for 11 months. 59 (41%) of the patients were admitted to hospital. One of them died and seven developed severe but reversible acute hepatitis. We also registered 26 cases of hepatitis A among close contacts, 14 of whom were associated with a nosocomial outbreak that affected nurses, fellow patients and relatives. We do not know how the hepatitis A virus was introduced into the abuser population, but the further spread was probably dominated by a combination of faecal-oral transmission and parenteral transmission secondary to sharing needles. Although we were unable to detect hepatitis A virus in confiscated drug samples by means of polymerase chain reaction we cannot exclude that some abusers were infected by injection of contaminated amphetamine.
authors.affiliation: Medisinsk avdeling Lovisenberg Diakonale sykehus, Oslo.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jensenius
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Espinoza
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hoel
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Oktedalen
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Heger
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Skar
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Grinde
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Skaug
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Berild
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D006506:Hepatitis A / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous
vernacular_title: Hepatitt A-epidemi blant intravenøse stoffmisbrukere i Oslo 1995-96.