Unusual Increase of Hepatitis A Cases in HIV Infected Men who have Sex with Men

Hepatitis A is a notifiable disease under the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance (Cap 599) of the Hong Kong laws. An unusual increase in the number of hepatitis A among attendees of Integrated Treatment Centre (ITC) of Department of Health (DH), who were HIV positive men who have sex with men (MSM), were recorded by CHP recently.

Retrospective analysis of laboratory information revealed that the virus from most of the cases reported since September 2015 were shown to be identical to either one of two genetically distinguishable groups within genotype 1A (4 and 8 cases, 1 case pending). Investigation is ongoing to study if the outbreak has spread to other MSM in the community.