July 15, 2005
Regional Health Department, Knoxville (WVLT) – Just about three months after an outbreak of the Hepatitis-A virus in Campbell County, many folks now are wondering if it’s spreading again.
Eight new cases since June 23rd have health officials taking a serious look at the situation.
Volunteer TV’s Kim Bedford has the latest on the cases.
Volunteer TV News spoke with the East Tennessee Regional Health Department earlier, and officials there tell us seven Campbell County residents and one Scott County resident have contracted the Hepatitis-A virus since June 23rd.

Five of the eight cases were just discovered this week.
The health department is not calling this an outbreak, but rather a “cluster” due to the small number of confirmed cases.
But they are taking immediate action, completing interviews with the eight residents, trying to find one common source that the virus could have stemmed from.
The interviews will wrap up on Monday and the department will piece all the information together to find out a possible source.
If you remember back in April, 23 people contracted the virus, restaurants in the community suffered as people feared going out to eat, but in the end after weeks of investigation, the health department said they could not find any common source of the virus. They ruled out all restaurants, day cares, and community and social events in the process.
Of course they’re hoping this time they’ll be able to find a common source for the virus. The department says at this point, there is no reason for residents to be afraid to eat out and it’s too early to pin-point any restaurants, until they finish the interviews.
They’re not ruling out the 23 Hepatitis-A cases back in April, and say it’s actually very possible these recent cases could be second or third generation, meaning these eight residents contracted the virus from hepatitis victims in April and are just now developing symptoms.