Jaundice is a problem that affects people worldwide [1]. In 2016, all 194 member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) met the public health goal of eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030. However, as of 2024, only a few countries are
trying to reach this goal [2].

Jaundice symptoms are waterborne diseases caused by hepatitis A virus (HAV) and hepatitis E virus (HEV) [3]. Previously, an outbreak of jaundice was detected to be widespread among Rohingya refugees in Cox’s
Bazar, Bangladesh, in early 2018, where a total of 206 patients were jaundice positive out of 275 samples due to HAV [4]. According to the 2016 WHO database, 7134 people died from hepatitis A worldwide, accounting for 0.5% of the mortality
due to viral hepatitis [5]. Srinivasan et al. [6] reported an outbreak of hepatitis A-related jaundice in 58 children in South India between April and August 2019. These viruses primarily spread in areas where health sanitation conditions
are poor and where there is a lack of safe food and drinking water supplies. Jaundice is often challenging to diagnose purely through physical tests [7] because it is associated with a variety of underlying pathologies, hemolytic disorders, bile duct obstructions, and liver diseases [8]. Food habits and dietary practices are also associated with jaundice [9]. Furthermore, several studies have reported that the pathogenic aspects of jaundice cause an imbalance in the gut microbiota [10, 11].

Additionally, more than 240 million people are recurrently infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and are at risk for liver failure or liver cancer [12]. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) causes an estimated 70,000 deaths each year as the accurate global burden of disease [13]. The prevalence of jaundice in children is high, with an estimated 80% of individuals affected during their first week of life [14]. HEV infection is endemic in Asia and many parts of Africa and is caused by acute hepatitis [15, 16]. In general, fewer than 1% of patients with clinical HEV die, but the case fatality rate among pregnant women is 6–20% [17]. Several studies have investigated HEV transmission to neonates born to mothers who often die from complications [18–20]. Hepatitis was previously considered a significant cause of maternal or neonatal mortality worldwide [21, 22]. Fatal outbreaks of jaundice during pregnancy during the twentieth century became serologically established as hepatitis E in Southern and Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and the rest of Africa [23, 24]. Autopsy studies revealed that 42% of maternal mortality in southern India and India was attributable to acute viral hepatitis [25]. In 2008, clusters of jaundice outbreaks were reported in a civic center, Ahmedabad, India, where 233 hepatitis patients were detected [26]. Kumar et al. [27] reported that HEV caused a jaundice outbreak in Punjab, India, with a 3.6% attack rate and 1 death among 159 cases. There are numerous studies on jaundice worldwide. To the best of our knowledge, there are no sufficient reports about jaundice symptom outbreaks in the Rajshahi division, Bangladesh. Therefore, the present study aimed to comprehensively understand the multifaceted nature of jaundice outbreaks. Moreover, we studied the diagnostic challenges of the hepatitis A virus and devised effective strategies for preventing manifestations in the region of Rajshahi, Bangladesh.