While the opioid crisis continues to rage on, the Hepatitis A virus is spreading like wildfire across the country, mostly affecting intravenous drug users and the homeless population.
“Relentlessly, the virus continues its march across the nation. Pennsylvania declared an outbreak as recently as May. In early August, Florida and Philadelphia declared public health
emergencies, which, among other things, signal to health care providers the need to vaccinate the vulnerable. Case counts now exceed 1,000 in six states,” writes Laura Ungar from USA Today.
The grim report states 29 states including Michigan and California have experienced Hepatitis A outbreaks since 2016 alone. During the same time period, over 23,600 people were infected and over 230 people died from the virus.
Tracey Rodriguez, the communicable disease supervisor for Summit County Public Health, has commented on the ongoing crisis, saying, “It’s getting into the general public. It’s scary.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that individuals who are homeless or who use intravenous drugs are at the highest risk of being infected by the virus.
The virus thrives in conditions which are unhygienic while it spreads as easily as a stomach virus.
The virus which causes Hepatitis A infects the liver and can be passed on through the feces of those who are infected. Individuals must wash their hands with warm soap and water after using the bathroom in order to protect against the virus. Those who contract the virus generally experience symptoms like jaundice, vomiting, fever, fatigue, joint pain, and others.
According to the Michigan Department of Health, the outbreak of Hepatitis A which started in 2016 has seen the number of reported cases in 2017 increase by a factor of ten since 2015. 553 cases of Hepatitis A were reported in Southeast Michigan in 2017, in comparison with just 51 in the whole state two years earlier.
At the beginning of this month, a public health crisis was declared by Florida’s Surgeon General Dr. Scott Rivkees after 56 cases of Hepatitis A were reported in the last period of reporting.
“I am declaring this Public Health Emergency as a proactive step to appropriately alert the public to this serious illness and prevent further spread of Hepatitis A in our state,” Rivkees stated, adding “The best way to prevent Hepatitis A is through vaccination. It is important that we vaccinate as many high-risk individuals as possible in order to achieve herd immunity.”