The state of Michigan is properly supporting a battle that a great many residents had no idea was being waged.

According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, a outbreak of hepatitis A that has principally been located in the Lower Peninsula with just one case reported above the Mackinac Bridge has killed 25 people as of late March. Overall, there have been 635 hospitalizations with a total 789 cases reported.

As a result, 25 health departments in the state, including all Upper Peninsula health departments, will each receive a $20,000 grant from MDHHS. The 20 health departments have already been awarded $2.5 million, part of a $7.1 million allocation approved by the Michigan Legislature in late 2017 to address the outbreak, which is believed to have started in August 2016.

The hepatitis A virus is found in the feces of infected individuals and spread by consuming contaminated food or water, sexual intercourse with an infected person, or living with an infected person, according to a Mining Journal story on the matter. The disease is not transmitted by coughing or sneezing. Symptoms can include yellowing of the skin and eyes, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, pale-colored feces, dark urine, joint pain, fever and feeling tired, according to MDHHS.

The funds will be used for, among other things, to provide high-risk groups with a hepatitis A vaccination — which is said is 95 percent effective.

“(The goal is) basically to take those populations that are at most risk to come into contact with the virus and provide protection,” Dr. Teresa Frankovich, who acts as medical director of several U.P. health departments, including Marquette County, said in the Journal story. “There’s only been one case to date in the U.P. that has been outbreak associated. We’d like it (to) remain that way,”

So would we.

This will be money well spent in a battle with state-wide public health considerations. A wise and proper investment, we believe.