An Outbreak of Infectious Hepatitis on a College Campus

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Abstract
Summary An epidemic of infectious hepatitis has been described, involving at least 222 individuals in a college, for a total attack rate of 8 per cent. Cases were distributed throughout the campus population with great uniformity, with two exceptions: disproportionately low attack rates (0.4%) were observed in students who lived off campus, and disproportionately high attack rates (17 to 50%) were observed in student workers in the common dining hall. Although every evidence pointed to a common source and mode of infection, these could not be determined with certainty. The outbreak is described as a “case report” of a large and interesting epidemic, the explanation for which remains frustratingly obscure. Further data are presented which show uniform attack rates among persons of all ages, among persons from large and from small families, among residents of urban areas and of rural areas, among veterans and nonveterans, and among persons claiming and not claiming previous infections with infectious hepatitis. Several possible explanations of these phenomena are discussed.