hepatitis A (or E) in Za'atari (مخيم الزعتري)

• Date: Mar 5 2013 Time: 11:43
• Description:
  We are seeing somewhere around at least a case a day of hepatitis A or E in the camp. So far all the cases I've seen or heard about are in those <18yo, who come in with yellow eyes, vomiting and fevers. Their AST and ALT levels have ranged from 1-3.5k. On the three days I've been there I've seen 3 cases with confirmatory labs. Saw one child yesterday who had just recovered from it but didn't see his labs. I'm not sure what the statistics are. The numbers are difficult to asses because there may be double counting. Many patients and especially their parents leave frustrated because they are only given fever reducers and told to eat sweet things and avoid fat. Then they go hospital shopping to see if they'll get a different response from another clinic.