Thirty-eight people in a school in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have been confirmed to have hepatitis A and 30 others are suspected of contracting the disease, said local health authorities Monday.

 

 

The number of the confirmed and suspected cases announced by the health authorities was 36 and 27 respectively two days ago.

 

One hundred and eleven students and a canteen worker in Fengshan Town No. 2 Middle School in Bobai County have been identified as carriers of hepatitis A, said Xu Zhangneng, head of the Bobai health bureau. According to Xu all the patients and those suspected of contracting the illness are in local hospitals and in stable condition. "Some 58 of the hospitalized are getting better after treatment," Xu said.

 

The other infected students now have lessons in separate classrooms while uninfected must remain on campus for further observation to avoid any further spread of the illness, officials said.

 

All the 1,438 students and staff at the school have been inoculated to contain the spread of the disease as the incubation period of the virus lasts 15 to 30 days, said Xu. Initial investigations show contaminated drinking water is the main cause of the outbreak. The first case was diagnosed on November 23 and the outbreak spread on December 6.

 

A well in the junior middle school, the main supply of drinking water for students, was contaminated possibly by a drainage ditch only five meters away. Students also washed their faces and rinsed mouths with water channeled from nearby mountain springs. Tests have found that colon bacillus in water from the well and the springs were above the set standard, according to Gong.

 

The accommodation for students is poor with 20 students sharing one dormitory and the school's canteen was in operation without a health certificate. Local health authorities have sterilized toilets, canteen, dormitories and classrooms to stop further infection.

 

In August an outbreak of hepatitis A afflicted 69 high school students in the same region. Hepatitis, or inflammation of the liver, is caused by infectious or toxic agents and characterized by jaundice, fever, liver enlargement and abdominal pain.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2006)