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 . . .