Radio | News week in plain Finnish | Saturday 23 March 2024

Hepatitis infections.

The topic of the news week this time is hepatitis infections. Hepatitis infections have increased in Finland.

Hepatitis is a liver disease. Meat sausage sausages containing the hepatitis virus have been removed from the stores.

Uutisviikko is now talking about hepatitis and its infections.

Increase in hepatitis infections

In Finland, more hepatitis E infections have been detected this year than usual. There have been infections in different parts of Finland.

Between January and February, 90 Hepatitis E cases were reported to the Infectious Disease Registry. In the whole of last year, there were only 30 cases of hepatitis in Finland, which means that their number has increased a lot this year.

About 40 percent of hepatitis patients have been hospitalized. They usually have had another disease that predisposes them to infection.

The majority of hepatitis patients do not need hospital treatment.

Symptoms of hepatitis infection can include fever, abdominal pain and yellow color of the skin and eyes. Most people have hepatitis without symptoms. Then they may not notice the infection.

Hepatitis E is an infection of the liver

Hepatitis E is an infection of the liver. It’s caused by a virus. People usually get infected with hepatitis from food.

The hepatitis virus can spread, for example, from human or animal excrement to water and food.

Symptoms of hepatitis infection usually appear about 40 days after infection.

Hepatitis found in meat sausages

The Institute of Health and Welfare, or THL, is investigating the increase in hepatitis infections in Finland.

One of the causes of hepatitis infections can be meat sausage sausages. Lihafirma Kotivara has removed meat sausages from sale because hepatitis E virus has been found in them.

The hepatitis virus is destroyed when food is cooked in heat. Meat sausage is cooked cold-smoked, i.e. rather cool. Therefore, the hepatitis virus could have survived in the meat sausage.

Repeat

The topic of the news week was hepatitis infections. Hepatitis infections have increased a lot this year.

THL investigates why hepatitis has increased. For example, hepatitis virus has been found in some meat sausages.

Hepatitis is a liver disease. Hepatitis can be spread through food if the food is not cooked hot.