Viral Hepatitis in a Group of Boston Hospitals

Abstract

INTENSIVE studies of epidemics of viral hepatitis have revealed multiple epidemiologic patterns of disease spread. Person-to-person contact is thought to be the most common type of transmission.1 Extensive common-source outbreaks of infectious hepatitis, although infrequent, have been traced to contaminated water, milk and other foods. In 1961 raw clams2 and raw oysters3 were incriminated for the first time in the United States. This pattern of shellfish-associated disease has recurred in 2 subsequent epidemics along the Atlantic seacoast.4 A significant risk of hepatitis has been recognized in animal handlers in contact with newly imported subhuman primates.5 Illicit use of habituating drugs . . .