Health alert across Spain due to strawberries contaminated with Hepatitis A

The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) of the European Union has issued an alert regarding the presence of hepatitis A in strawberries from Morocco detected at a point of entry in Spain, destined for distribution across the country.

According to the notification, the risk is deemed "serious" as it exceeds the "maximum permitted absence/25g" level. This substance "poses a danger to public health and may have appeared in the food due to the irrigation of the crops with sewage water," as denounced by the Valencian Farmers Association (AVA-Asaja).

The organisation has expressed "concern" and demanded "urgent measures" from the central government and the European Union. As reported by Ideal, it has sent a letter to the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, urging him to "urgently request explanations from the Moroccan government and specify what measures it intends to take to prevent such situations from happening again."

Additionally, AVA-Asaja has urged Planas to "inform the relevant EU authorities that all strawberries from Morocco undergo a thorough inspection, and in case of detecting further health alerts in other fruits and vegetables from third countries, controls should be extended to those products, as consumers' health is at risk."

ABOUT HEPATITIS A

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), hepatitis A is inflammation of the liver caused by the hepatitis A virus (HAV), which primarily spreads when an uninfected (and unvaccinated) person ingests water or food contaminated with the faeces of an infected person. Within families, transmission can occur if the hands of the person responsible for cooking are dirty.

The incubation period is typically between 14 and 28 days. Symptoms range from mild to severe and can include fever, malaise, loss of appetite, diarrhoea, nausea, abdominal discomfort, dark urine, and jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes). Infected individuals may not always exhibit all these symptoms, just some of them.

Adults show signs and symptoms more frequently than children; the severity and mortality of the disease increase with age. Infected children under six years old usually do not experience noticeable symptoms, and only 10% develop jaundice.

Hepatitis A can occasionally relapse, meaning that a person who has just recovered can become ill again with another acute episode.

There is no specific treatment for hepatitis A. Symptoms after infection may slowly resolve, and recovery can extend over several weeks or months. It is important to avoid unnecessary medications that can negatively impact liver function, such as acetaminophen or paracetamol.