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HONG KONG – The Hong Kong Department of Health has announced that a second person in the city had contracted a strain of hepatitis transmitted by rats. Both human cases seem to be the first known worldwide.
The health ministry said Wednesday in a statement that it could not determine how the two people had been infected with the particular strain of the hepatitis E virus.
Other strains of hepatitis E are usually transmitted by humans via contaminated water, particularly in South and East Asia.
Both cases in Hong Kong were discovered long after the treatment of patients.
The last case was discovered in blood samples taken from a 70-year-old woman whose immune system was weakened and who had been treated in May 2017.
The first case was reported in September.
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