Foreign Ministry spokesman Ivars Lasis told reporters in response to a note that Latvia gave the Estonian Foreign Ministry earlier this week, the Estonian Health Inspectorate stopped distributing the recommendation against planning school children's trips to Latvia and to consider vaccination against this infection before traveling abroad.
The Latvian embassy in Tallinn gave the Estonian Foreign Ministry a note demanding the recall of the recommendation against visiting Latvia due to an ongoing outbreak of hepatitis A in this Baltic country, the press service of the ministry told BNS.
On Feb. 18, the Estonian Health Inspectorate released information on the hepatitis A outbreak in Latvia and advised residents to cancel plans to visit Latvia.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has never issued a recommendation against visiting a country due to an outbreak of hepatitis A.
Hepatitis A is quite widespread in several countries visited by tourists from the EU. The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control has not included in its report on the hepatitis outbreak in Latvia any recommendations against visiting Latvia on tourist trips, but has only advised visitors to take preventive measures.
According to the latest statistics, the number of new hepatitis A cases recorded in Latvia this year has reached 1,000, with most cases reported in Riga and its area.
In 2008, a total of 2,915 people fell ill with hepatitis A in Latvia, while only 13 people caught the disease in Estonia.
Please enter your username and password.
2026 © The Baltic Times /Cookies Policy Privacy Policy
