Since September 2021, 19 people have contracted hepatitis A in a Nunavik community, most of them children. Thirteen of these people had to be hospitalized. In a notice made public Monday, the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec recommends that a mass vaccination campaign be carried out everywhere in Nunavik to prevent other cases.
So far, 15 children aged two to nine and four adults aged 41 to 47 have contracted the virus in this community of Nunavik, not identified in the notice. “All the cases are found in two age groups who have not benefited from the vaccine offer of the regular vaccination schedule or from the massive vaccination campaigns that have previously taken place in the region”, notes the INSPQ in its opinion. .
People with hepatitis A have different symptoms, such as fever, fatigue, lack of appetite and headaches, we can read on the website of the Ministry of Health and Social Services.
Vaccination against hepatitis A is offered in 4e primary year since 2013 in Quebec. Since June 2019, the HAHB vaccine has also been administered at the age of 18 months and it continues to be administered in schools, indicates the INPQ, which points out that several children aged 8 and under have therefore not yet been vaccinated. The INSPQ adds that “school vaccination has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and it is possible that children aged 9-10 have not been vaccinated against HVA. “.
The INSPQ also notes that adults aged 40-50 seem to have escaped the massive hepatitis A vaccination campaigns carried out in particular in 1997 and 2002 in Nunavik “creating a pool of non-immune adults from which the 4 adult cases of the outbreak ”.
Since the outbreak began in September, targeted vaccination has been offered in the community affected by the outbreak. In all, 52 children 6 months to 4 years old and 139 children 5 to 9 years old were vaccinated, as were several adults at risk.
But in its opinion, the INSPQ considers that all children and adults in Nunavik who have not benefited from the vaccination so far, and not only those in the target community, should be vaccinated. The target cohorts are those of children from 18 months to 9 years old and adults born between 1970 and 1981. All other unvaccinated people or with unknown vaccination status living in Nunavik should also be offered the vaccine, concludes the INSPQ, which emphasizes that the vaccination campaign can be carried out at the same time as that of COVID-19.