Babies checked for liver disease

The trust has issued guidance to hospital staff on symptoms

New-born babies are to be screened for hepatitis A in a Hampshire city after a hospital worker contracted the disease.

Managers at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester, have sent letters to 67 mothers informing them of the outbreak, which started at two schools.

A maternity unit worker has contracted the liver disease, although the letter said the chance of infection was low.

Children and some staff at two schools are already being vaccinated against the disease.

Pupils at Winnall Primary School and another at Osborne Special School, also in Winchester, were recently diagnosed with the liver infection recently.

The baby screening was ordered at the hospital with the pinprick test available to babies born between 15 and 22 May.

The risk to your baby is very low Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust

Mothers are being told to contact NHS Direct, if worried.

In the letter, Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, said: "The advice we have had from the Health Protection Agency is that the risk of transmission to you is so low that screening is not recommended.

"The risk of hepatitis A having been transmitted to your baby is also very low.

"However, we realise you may be worried and so we are arranging screening for babies who were on the maternity unit between 15 and 22 May."

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) is investigating the community outbreak and has so far found six cases.

The majority of people from the UK who become infected with hepatitis A contract it when abroad.

It is spread because of poor personal hygiene and there is no specific treatment.

The most obvious symptom is jaundice - others include weakness, tiredness, headache, fever, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhoea.

Hepatitis A is usually less severe in children and young adults.

However, the severity of the illness is generally worse in older people.

Guidance to hospital staff on symptoms has also been issued, the trust added.