UPDATED: The Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service Public Health Unit has issued a revised exposure period as it manages a confirmed case of Hepatitis A.
The health service is encouraging staff and patrons who visited Raw + Rice Noosa heads, between April 22 and May 18 (not May 9 as previously reported) to monitor their own and their family’s health, and present to their GP for testing and to discuss treatment where required. See below for more information.
EARLIER: The Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service Public Health Unit has revealed a venue of concern as it manages a confirmed case of Hepatitis A in a person residing at Noosa Heads.
The SCHHS Public Health Unit is supporting the individual to identify those who may have been exposed to the case while infectious.
The case returned from overseas travel last month.
Raw + Rice Noosa Heads has been identified as the venue of concern.
The health service is encouraging staff and patrons who visited the venue between April 22 and May 9 to monitor their own and their family’s health, and present to their GP for testing and to discuss treatment where required.
Hepatitis A is an acute viral infection that can be spread from person to person by the faecal-oral route (the faeces of an infectious person has contaminated something that is put into someone else’s mouth).
The symptoms of Hepatitis A are fever, generalised aches and pains, nausea, lack of appetite and abdominal discomfort. Dark urine is usually the first specific sign of acute hepatitis A, followed a day or two later by jaundice (yellow skin and eyes) and pale-coloured bowel motions.
The severity and duration of illness varies, however most people feel better by the third week.
The disease is usually more serious in adults than children. In adults, Hepatitis A occasionally presents as a serious, disabling disease lasting several months. Most young children with hepatitis A have few, if any, symptoms so the infection can go unrecognised.
They can, however, easily infect other children and adults.
The time between when a person is exposed to the virus to when they may develop symptoms averages four weeks, with a range of two to seven weeks.
If your you or your family members develops any of these symptoms, visit your GP or closest emergency department.
For further information visit the Queensland Health website.
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