• From January 2018 to January 2019, a fourth of the 736 total cases, 185, were epidemiologically linked to other cases.
• In January 2019, 37 percent of cases were linked to other cases.
• Of the 69 linked cases in January 2019, 20 were linked to another case by household contact, 15 cases by environmental contact, 5 cases by sexual contact, 8 cases by personal contact, 1 case by other contact, and 20 cases had an undetermined relationship.
• Since Jan. 1, 2018, the incidence rate was highest among adults aged 30-39 years old at 9.4 cases per 100,000 population.
• In January 2019, the incidence rate was again found to be highest among adults aged 30-39 years old at 2.4 cases per 100,000 population.
• Since Jan. 1, 2018, two-thirds of Florida’s reported cases were male.
• Since Jan. 1, 2018, the vast majority of infections in the Sunshine State, 97 percent, have likely been acquired locally.

“Since Jan. 1, 2018, 97 percent of people with hepatitis A had never received a documented dose of hepatitis A vaccine. In January 2019, 95 percent of infected people had not received the vaccine,” according to the Florida report.

Public health investigators across the country have not found a common source of the infections, but more than 70 percent of the victims in many areas are homeless people, substance abusers, or both. There is a post-exposure treatment, but it is only effective if given within two weeks of exposure.

Most people infected with the hepatitis A virus are contagious before symptoms develop. The virus can be spread when infected people handle, prepare or serve foods and beverages.

Many restaurants wher infected workers have been detected during the ongoing outbreak have voluntarily offered post-exposure vaccinations for customers. There are currently a number of civil lawsuits in state and federal courts seeking reimbursement for restaurant customers who had to miss work and pay for post-exposure vaccinations.