ealth officials in San Diego have scrambled for months to contain an outbreak of
hepatitis
A — vaccinating more than 19,000 people, putting up posters at bus
stations and distributing hand sanitizer and cleansing wipes.
Despite
those efforts, 16 people have died of the highly contagious virus in
San Diego County and hundreds have become ill in what officials say is
the nation’s second-largest outbreak of hepatitis A in decades.
Earlier this month, San Diego officials declared a public health emergency.
Though
Los Angeles has so far escaped an outbreak, public health officials are
hoping to head off a similar emergency. They say the virus could easily
spread to Los Angeles because of its proximity to San Diego and the
region’s large homeless population.
“We know it’s getting worse in San Diego so we’re really
ramping up,” said Cristin Mondy, the county’s area health officer for a
region that includes downtown Los Angeles.
In their
efforts to get their outbreak under control, San Diego health officials
have adopted a technique from L.A. that they hope will stop cases from
spreading locally: washing the streets with water containing bleach.
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