The Windsor Essex County Health Unit is assuring the public a recent outbreak of Hepatitis A in Detroit has not made its way across the border.
The disease, which attacks the liver, can have fatal results for the elderly and very young, as well as those with compromised livers and immune systems.
People need to be aware of the risk, but there have been no reported cases related to Detroit in Windsor-Essex, according to Dr. Alexa Caturay with the WECHU.
"We have no cases reported to the WECHU. There is ongoing surveillance that's coordinated both locally and at the level of the province," she says. "We have not seen any cases related to that outbreak here."
Hepatitis A can be transferred through contaminated water, foods, sexual intercourse, and contact with other people.
Several cases were traced back to Michigan restaurants; something that Caturay understands is a concern living in a border city. She says it's not something the health unit actively tracks, but if a case were to pop-up in Windsor they would be able to trace it stateside.
"We haven't quantified that risk for these kinds of exposures for people crossing the border because we don't know what the numbers of people who cross the border and eat at different institutions is," Caturay says. "We have processes in place to follow up should that happen."
The best way to prevent contracting the virus is to wash your hands with soap and water and to get vaccinated, she added.
"We know that vaccination is safe and effective. With two doses of the Hepatitis A vaccine, you're offered protection for 10 or more years," she says. "If it's something that is a concern, it's certainly a reasonable thing to do."
Public Health Ontario offers the vaccine free of charge to residents who may be at high risk; a single post-exposure dose of the vaccine is publicly-funded for individuals who may have been exposed to the virus.
— with files from AM800's Peter Langille.