August 4, 2006
The Daily News (Halifax)

Jennifer Taplin Nurse Christine Johnson's face glows. Yesterday, she showed kids the danger of germs with simulated Glo Germ. The powder looks invisible to the naked eye, but under a black light, it glows.

"It shows children how easily germs are transmitted," said Johnson, after the group of kids left.

At a hepatitis A information open house at Rock Church in Sackville yesterday, Johnson put a little Glo Germ on her hand and then shook another person's hand.

The black light shows how easy it is to share germs. Johnson said she forgot sometimes about the powder on her hand and often touched her face.

These information sessions are in response to an outbreak of hepatitis A. Seven cases of hepatitis A were reported in Lower Sackville by Capital Health this week.

Shelly Sarwal, medical officer of health, said there were no new cases reported yesterday.

"The virus passes in people's stool, so if someone is infected, then they can pass the infection to other people if they're not washing their hands properly."

A video starring puppets, the Glo Germ experiment, and a hand- washing demonstration at the open house mostly targeted kids.

"Up to 70 per cent of children who are infected actually are not sick, they don't have symptoms. They don't even know that they're sick, the family won't know that they're sick, but they still spread the infection to other people," said Sarwal.

"So we're concerned there might be such children around ... and the best protection for that is for everyone to wash their hands."

There are about eight or nine cases of this kind of liver infection in the province every year, but it's rare to have seven cases all at once. It causes diarrhea, fever, stomach pains, and yellow skin and eyes.

The backdrop for the first of three information sessions, Rock Church, is the workplace of one infected person. Russ Conway, church administrator, said Wednesday he suspected he might have caught it from one of the kids during an outreach program.