Sixty-four students from Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine were confirmed as having contracted hepatitis A as of 5:00 PM Tuesday. But no deaths have been reported.

 

The Jiangxi Provincial Health Department said since Sunday some students from the university's suburban Wanli campus, in the province's capital Nanchang, had lost their appetites and felt weak.

 

The students have been diagnosed as suffering from hepatitis A. They've all been hospitalized, said the department, and are in a stable condition.

 

The department said more cases from the campus could be confirmed as the disease is highly infectious and the incubation period is between 15 to 30 days.

 

The provincial health department's public health emergency plan is in operation and an anti-hepatitis team has been set up in the province led by Vice Governor Hu Zhenpeng.

 

The health departments at provincial, district and city levels have been mobilized to control the further spread of the disease.

 

Medical workers will supervise the disinfection of the university dormitories and public areas on campus. Those who had close contact with the patients have been vaccinated. It's still unknown how the students contracted the illness.

 

Thirty-eight people in a school in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have also been confirmed as suffering from hepatitis A and 30 others are suspected of contracting the illness, said local health authorities Monday.

 

Initial investigations indicate contaminated drinking water was the cause of the outbreak. The first case was diagnosed on November 23 and the outbreak spread on December 6. A well at the junior middle school, the main supply of drinking water for students, was contaminated possibly by a drainage ditch only five meters away. In August an outbreak of hepatitis A affected 69 high school students in the same region.

 

Hepatitis, an 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 20, 2006)