A person to person hepatitis A outbreak.

A person to person outbreak of hepatitis A is described: 90 cases of hepatitis A occurred in a small town in Calabria, southern Italy; all cases were under 18 years of age with the highest age-specific incidence rate in the 6-10 year age group. Transmission was identified by tracing close contacts with other incubating or active cases; only eight out of 90 cases were not identified as having a very probable or possible contact with an infecting case. Transmission was high between family members leading to a secondary family attack rate of 51% in children under 16. An enteric disease educational campaign was carried out together with IgG and no cases of hepatitis A were reported in the two years following the investigation.