Australian officials have reported three hepatitis A infections linked to dates imported from Jordan.
The strain is identical to the one that caused an outbreak of hepatitis A in the United Kingdom earlier this year, which was also caused by fresh Medjool dates from Jordan. Dates were recalled by Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer.
In the UK, at least 30 people fell ill in different parts of England with one person sick in Wales. They had a median age of 60 and ranged from 6 to 93 years old with 25 people needing hospital treatment.
At the time, information sent via the International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) emergency contact did not reveal reports of similar outbreaks elsewhere.
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