Urgent warning for a worrying increase in the murderous virus in four hotspots for vacation – Bug can cause liver failure

Holidaymakers who play on four popular European destinations can warn the risk of deadly ‘dirty hands disease’ experts.

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control has identified an increase in hepatitis A infections that wiped through Europe after nine people died of the virus.

Hepatitis A – which is caused by a virus that is spread through polluted faeces that make its way in food and drink – can be deadly and cause catastrophic liver failure.

Now health officials have confirmed 2,097 cases of the disease, on four popular holiday destinations, including Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

According to a new ECDC report, Slovakia is the most difficult affected in terms of the large number of cases, with 880 alone in 2025.

Effairs in Austria have already awarded last year’s figures, with 87 diagnoses confirmed, including three dead this year.

Hungary has reported 530 cases this year so far, usually among adults.

But the Czech Republic – with 600 cases – has reported most of the deaths related to the virus, with six fatalities after serious liver infections, in which young children are most likely to fall victim.

Because the virus is spread by contact with faeces – it gives the name ‘Dirty Hand Disease’ – children who do not wash their hands well before they connect it earlier.

Hepatitis A has few noticeable symptoms in the early stages, but if it can be brought untreated to liver failure and even prove to be fatal.

Signs of the infection include a high temperature, flu-like symptoms-such as fatigue, headache and muscle pains, vomiting, abdominal pain, light gray colored faeces and itchy skin.

In more serious cases, the skin and eyes of an infected person may seem yellow – a condition known as jaundice and a serious sign that the liver is difficult to function.

But the NHS warns that most children, and some adults, may not have any symptoms that indicate that they are infected.

Dr. Barbora Macková, Chief Hygienist and director of the Czech Republic, said: “In the current epidemiological situation, we recommend being vaccinated before the start of vacations and vacations.”

The warning comes when the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) follows a mysterious peak in hepatitis A infections in Great -Britain, after 95 people have developed a serious liver infection, with 58 so sick that they had to be admitted to the hospital.

Civil servants have reported two separate clusters of the virus in the United Kingdom, with 53 cases that have been reported in the last wave since December 2024 alone.

Analysis of patient interviews has linked the outbreak to an unnamed specific food item from a public supermarket, which reported most patients before they fell ill.

There are no dead in Great Britain linked to the outbreak.

Anyone who has not been vaccinated or infected rather runs a higher risk of catching hepatitis A.

Patients diagnosis with the virus are advised not to drink alcohol, to prepare food or drink for other people, having sex without a barrier method such as a condom or needles with others until they are no longer contagious.

This is usually about seven days after the first symptoms start, for those who have no jaundice.

Hepatitis A vaccines are not routinely given in the UK due to the generally low risk of getting the infection.

But the NHS advises the JAB for travelers on the way to places where the virus is more common.

These include parts of Africa, Asia, the Central East and Central and South America.

Hepatitis A rarely rare cause of death in the UK – Between 2005 and 2021, only 42 deaths were registered with the virus as an underlying cause.