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Source: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown...atitis-marches-san-diegos-homeless-community/
An outbreak waiting to happen: hepatitis A marches through San Diego?s homeless community
BY Usha Lee McFarling, STAT October 8, 2017 at 10:18 AM EDT
SAN DIEGO ? The hepatitis A outbreak now roiling this well-heeled, coastal city may have had its roots in a baseball game ? when the city cleaned up for the 2016 All-Star Game by pushing its homeless out of the touristy areas downtown and into increasingly congested encampments and narrow freeway onramps just east of downtown. The lines of tents stretched for blocks.
At the same time, the city was locking and removing bathrooms to help control the rampant drug and prostitution trade they?d spawned. Hepatitis A is transmitted through contact with feces from an infected person, and in close, unsanitary conditions, the highly contagious virus can spread explosively. So it was only a matter of time, experts say, before cases would surge among the homeless.
?I?m not so much surprised it occurred, but surprised it didn?t occur earlier,? said Dr. Robert Schooley, who chairs the division of infectious diseases at the University of California, San Diego, and currently serves as an informal health adviser to the city?s mayor. ?In some ways, it was the perfect storm.?
Today, the tents are gone. There are clusters of newly installed portable toilets open and guarded 24 hours a day. More than 60 new hand-washing stations dot the city. Workers in hazmat suits spend mornings spraying bleach onto streets and sidewalks. Armies of nurses walk through encampments and even into riverbeds and canyons to offer the highly effective hepatitis A vaccine to homeless people. And on Monday, the first city-sanctioned homeless camp ? with 200 four-person tents, security, showers, and bathrooms ? is slated to open in a parking lot near Balboa Park.
It?s an extraordinary campaign to control an outbreak that?s so far known to have stricken 481 and killed 17 here, mainly people who are homeless or drug users, or work with them. The city of San Diego had more than 5,600 homeless residents at last count, the fourth-largest population of any U.S. city, and many health officials fear the outbreak could worsen as new cases continue to surface.
?I don?t expect this is going to be solved overnight,? said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, a UCLA professor who previously headed the LA County Department of Public Health. ?It could take a year or more.?...
An outbreak waiting to happen: hepatitis A marches through San Diego?s homeless community
BY Usha Lee McFarling, STAT October 8, 2017 at 10:18 AM EDT
SAN DIEGO ? The hepatitis A outbreak now roiling this well-heeled, coastal city may have had its roots in a baseball game ? when the city cleaned up for the 2016 All-Star Game by pushing its homeless out of the touristy areas downtown and into increasingly congested encampments and narrow freeway onramps just east of downtown. The lines of tents stretched for blocks.
At the same time, the city was locking and removing bathrooms to help control the rampant drug and prostitution trade they?d spawned. Hepatitis A is transmitted through contact with feces from an infected person, and in close, unsanitary conditions, the highly contagious virus can spread explosively. So it was only a matter of time, experts say, before cases would surge among the homeless.
?I?m not so much surprised it occurred, but surprised it didn?t occur earlier,? said Dr. Robert Schooley, who chairs the division of infectious diseases at the University of California, San Diego, and currently serves as an informal health adviser to the city?s mayor. ?In some ways, it was the perfect storm.?
Today, the tents are gone. There are clusters of newly installed portable toilets open and guarded 24 hours a day. More than 60 new hand-washing stations dot the city. Workers in hazmat suits spend mornings spraying bleach onto streets and sidewalks. Armies of nurses walk through encampments and even into riverbeds and canyons to offer the highly effective hepatitis A vaccine to homeless people. And on Monday, the first city-sanctioned homeless camp ? with 200 four-person tents, security, showers, and bathrooms ? is slated to open in a parking lot near Balboa Park.
It?s an extraordinary campaign to control an outbreak that?s so far known to have stricken 481 and killed 17 here, mainly people who are homeless or drug users, or work with them. The city of San Diego had more than 5,600 homeless residents at last count, the fourth-largest population of any U.S. city, and many health officials fear the outbreak could worsen as new cases continue to surface.
?I don?t expect this is going to be solved overnight,? said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, a UCLA professor who previously headed the LA County Department of Public Health. ?It could take a year or more.?...