Hepatitis outbreak is traced to contaminated needles and barber shop razors, study shows

A village in the Ernakulam district in Kerala, India, has experienced a serious outbreak of hepatitis B virus, which has been traced to injections with contaminated needles and transmission in barber shops.

The origins of the outbreak were discovered after the local government commissioned a private firm, the Manipal Centre for Virus Research (MCVR), to carry out a disease mapping and risk factor study.

The centre’s head, G Arunkumar, said that the hepatitis B virus infection was possibly introduced into the population before 2011, …