An outbreak of hepatitis A, a highly contagious liver disease, in San Diego and, more recently, in Los Angeles County, has prompted local response.
Last week, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health attended the Wednesday night homeless dinner at Malibu United Methodist Church, offering free hepatitis A vaccinations to all guests and volunteers.
The vaccinations are part of a current Los Angeles countywide effort to make sure a serious outbreak of hepatitis A occurring in San Diego does not happen here.
In San Diego, where officials declared a public health emergency earlier this month, 421 have become ill, 292 have been hospitalized and 16 have died from the highly contagious virus, according to figures released last week by the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency. The first case was reported last November, but officials didn’t declare an outbreak until March.
Since then, health officials have also declared a hepatitis A outbreak in LA County, with 10 people infected as The Malibu Times went to print. According to an LA Times article, eight infected patients have been linked back to the outbreak in San Diego, but two people appear to have been infected locally.
Over a dozen dinner guests in Malibu took advantage of the free vaccines, but many said they had already gotten a vaccination from the county at some other location. Malibu’s CART organization for helping the homeless initiated the visit purely as a precautionary measure. LA County public health officials reported they have vaccinated more than 1,000 people to date.
“We are very concerned about an outbreak” given the extensive travel between San Diego and Los Angeles, Dr. Sharon Balter, director of the LA County Department of Public Health’s acute communicable disease control program told KPCC. Vaccinating homeless people and their service providers is critical to preventing the outbreak from spreading, said officials in Orange and LA counties.
The majority of those infected in San Diego were either homeless or illicit-drug users, with cases concentrated in downtown San Diego and the cities of El Cajon, Santee and La Mesa, San Diego public health officer Dr. Wilma Wooten told the LA Times.
Although hepatitis A is often contracted through contaminated food, the strain currently affecting San Diego as well as Santa Cruz appears to be spreading from person to person, she said, often by feces, through close contact with an infected person.
Unsanitary conditions make it more likely for hepatitis A to spread. The virus can be transmitted when an infected person doesn’t wash their hands after using the bathroom or changing diapers, according to LA County literature.
Since the outbreak in San Diego, health officials there have vaccinated more than 19,000 people, installed hand-washing stations and portable restrooms in areas where the homeless congregate, and followed LA’s practice of washing selected streets and sidewalks with a bleach solution to sanitize any fecal material.
According to information being distributed by LA County, hepatitis A is a highly contagious liver disease caused by a virus. They say that not everyone shows symptoms, but if symptoms develop, it’s usually 15 to 50 days after infection. Symptoms can include fever, feeling tired, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, dark urine, grey stool, joint pain and yellowing of the skin and eyes.
The best way to prevent hepatitis A is by getting vaccinated, according to LA County. The vaccination is given as a series of two shots, six months apart. According to the public health registered nurse who came to Malibu, the first vaccination gives 95 percent protection, and the second vaccination, given six months later, only gives an additional two percent immunity.
Most people who contract hepatitis A recover completely without lasting liver damage, although some may have to be hospitalized. It is most dangerous to people who already have hepatitis B or C, or some other type of chronic liver disease.
Monica Garcia-Lurey, a member of Malibu’s CART group, first raised the issue of the San Diego hepatitis A outbreak at a CART meeting and the outbreak was also discussed at their Homeless Connect Day Debrief in August. The People Concern put CART member Terry Davis in touch with Helen Obih at the county’s Department of Public Health, and the two coordinated the free vaccine visit to Malibu.
CART can be contacted at 310.456.3591.