A family cluster of hepatitis A virus due to an uncommon IA strain circulating in Campania (southern Italy), not associated with raw shellfish or berries: a wake-up call to implement vaccination against hepatitis A?
Hepatitis A virus is a widely occurring disease, with different prevalence rates between countries in the North and West and those in the South and East. In Italy endemicity is low/medium, but not homogeneously distributed: in the northern/central regions a large hepatitis A outbreak due to genotype IA, related to the consumption of contaminated mixed frozen berries, occurred between 2013 and 2014, whereas in southern Italian regions recurrent outbreaks of hepatitis A, due to the IB genotype, still result from consumption of raw seafood. In 2014 an uncommon genotype IA strain was isolated from five patients (2 adults and 3 children) with hepatitis A, living in the surroundings of Naples (Campania) who did not have any of the most common risk factors for hepatitis A in Italy, such as consumption of raw shellfish or frozen berries, or travel to endemic countries. Moreover, based on the analysis of viral sequences obtained, this strain differed from several others in the national database, which had been recently isolated during Italian outbreaks. This case report reinforces the need to implement both information campaigns about the prevention of hepatitis A and vaccination programmes in childhood; in addition, it would be suitable to sequence strains routinely not only during large outbreaks of hepatitis A in order to obtain a more detailed national database of HAV strains circulating in Italy.
Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Section of Infectious Diseases, Viral Infection and AIDS Unit, University Federico II, Naples, Italy.
Grazia
G
Tosone
Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Section of Infectious Diseases, Viral Infection and AIDS Unit, University Federico II, Naples, Italy.
Silvia
S
Mascolo
Department of Infectious, Parasitic and Immune-mediated Diseases, Viral Hepatitis Section, Istituto Superiore di Sanitá, Rome, Italy.
Roberto
R
Bruni
Department of Infectious, Parasitic and Immune-mediated Diseases, Viral Hepatitis Section, Istituto Superiore di Sanitá, Rome, Italy.
Stefania
S
Taffon
Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Istituto Superiore di Sanitá, Rome, Italy.
Michele
M
Equestre
National Centre for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion, Istituto Superiore di Sanitá, Rome, Italy.
Maria Elena
ME
Tosti
Department of Infectious, Parasitic and Immune-mediated Diseases, Viral Hepatitis Section, Istituto Superiore di Sanitá, Rome, Italy.
Anna Rita
AR
Ciccaglione
Unit of Infectious Diseases, Azienda Ospedaliera dei Colli - Cotugno, Naples, Italy.
Fiorella
F
Martucci
Unit of Infectious Diseases, Azienda Ospedaliera dei Colli - Cotugno, Naples, Italy.
Alfonso
A
Liberti
Unit of Infectious Diseases, Azienda Ospedaliera dei Colli - Cotugno, Naples, Italy.
Maria Donata
MD
Iannece
Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Section of Infectious Diseases, Viral Infection and AIDS Unit, University Federico II, Naples, Italy.
Raffaele
R
Orlando
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005838:Genotype; D006506:Hepatitis A / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000635:transmission / Q000821:virology*; D022362:Hepatitis A Vaccines; D030041:Hepatitis A virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D010802:Phylogeny; D012307:Risk Factors; D013029:Space-Time Clustering; D014611:Vaccination; D014871:Water Microbiology
D022362:Hepatitis A Vaccines