Hep A Outbreak: 19 Now Dead, More than 350 Hospitalized

image
Author: Jeff Powers
Published: 17 Oct, 2017
Updated: 21 Nov, 2022
1 min read

The death toll continues to climb.

The county Health and Human Services Agency updated its hepatitis A outbreak numbers which inluded an additional death to bring the total to 19 and increased the number of cases to more than 500 at 507.

Efforts are underway to vaccinatate, sanitize and educate the public on the crisis.

Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county’s public health officer, said last week that her department had 47 cases under investigation. Those cases though don’t get added to the outbreak totals until testing by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms the strain.

Last week Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency to combat the virus. Brown's proclamation allows the state to buy vaccines directly from manufacturers and distribute them.

California has distributed 81,000 federally-funded vaccine doses since the outbreak began and local jurisdictions have acquired more but the supply is insufficient, Chavez said.

California is experiencing the largest hepatitis A outbreak in the United States transmitted from person to person — instead of by contaminated food — since the vaccine became available in 1996. The state says the majority affected are homeless, using drugs or both.

Latest articles

Crowd in Time Square.
NYC Exit Survey: 96% of Voters Understood Their Ranked Choice Ballots
An exit poll conducted by SurveyUSA on behalf of the nonprofit better elections group FairVote finds that ranked choice voting (RCV) continues to be supported by a vast majority of voters who find it simple, fair, and easy to use. The findings come in the wake of the city’s third use of RCV in its June 2025 primary elections....
01 Jul, 2025
-
6 min read
A man filling out his election ballot.
Oregon Activist Sues over Closed Primaries: 'I Shouldn't Have to Join a Party to Have a Voice'
A new lawsuit filed in Oregon challenges the constitutionality of the state’s closed primary system, which denies the state’s largest registered voting bloc – independent voters – access to taxpayer-funded primary elections. The suit alleges Oregon is denying the voters equal voting rights...
01 Jul, 2025
-
3 min read
Supreme Court building.
Supreme Court Sides with Federal Corrections Officers in Lawsuit Over Prison Incident
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 30 that federal prison officers and officials cannot be sued by an inmate who accused them of excessive force during a 2021 incident, delivering a victory for federal corrections personnel concerned about rising legal exposure for doing their jobs....
01 Jul, 2025
-
3 min read