Syria: Contaminated water spreading Hepatitis A in Hama province

Contaminated water is causing Hepatitis A to spread in part of central Syria's Hama province, regime health authorities have said.

People in the Masyaf area, where the spread is occurring, are drinking water contaminated as a consequence of the deadly earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria in February and the damage done to water networks, regime health authorities have said.

The number of confirmed cases has exceeded 106, they said. This includes 70 infections among students in three schools in the town of Hayalin, the regime education ministry's school health director Hatoun Al-Toushi told Sham FM radio on Wednesday.

But one citizen who lives in a regime-controlled area said the issue is not connected to the earthquake.

He said the region has been suffering from an outbreak of hepatitis over the past year, with dozens of cases recorded in the village of Al-Bayyadiyah.

Contaminated drinking water is to blame, he added.

Kamal Mahmoud, a resident of the Masyaf region, wrote on Facebook that authorities in Hayalin reported a malfunction in the town's main water line, with sewage mixed with drinking water.

This took place before the outbreak in the town but authorities ignored the problem until after the disease had already spread, he said.

Hepatitis A, a viral infection, impacts the liver. It can occasionally be fatal.