With multinational retailer Tesco neither willing to confirm nor deny that it is the “Supermarket X” linked to Hepatitis E infections in an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 British sausage lovers annually, some people are beginning to suspect imported pork products were responsible.
According to the World Health Organization:
- Hepatitis E is a liver disease caused by infection with a virus known as Hepatitis E virus (HEV).
- Every year, there are an estimated 20 million HEV infections worldwide, leading to an estimated 3.3 million symptomatic cases of Hepatitis E.
- WHO estimates that Hepatitis E caused approximately 44,000 deaths in 2015, accounting for 3.3 percent of the mortality due to viral hepatitis.
- The virus is transmitted via the fecal-oral route, principally via contaminated water.
- Hepatitis E is found worldwide, but the prevalence is highest in East and South Asia.
Britons are upset that Public Health England (PHE) has named “Supermarket X” as a common denominator in the spread of the virus to United Kingdom consumers, instead of releasing the actual name of the retailer.
FoodWorld 