San Diego postpones outreach in hepatitis A outbreak due to vaccine shortage
It’s been six weeks since San Diego County public health officials declared a state of emergency due to a hepatitis A outbreak, with 544 reported cases and 20 deaths. Now, the county is postponing its outreach campaign due to a national shortage of a vaccine.
The announcement relates to the second of two inoculations, according to the county’s chief public health officer.
“Our goal is to get that vaccine in as many arms as possible for that first dose,” said Wilma Wooten, MD, MPH, in a story from Kaiser Health News.
The hepatitis A vaccinations should be administered six months apart. The first shot is the most important, Wooten said, because it protects people 90 to 95 percent of the time against the virus that causes the disease. The second shot raises the protection level to “close to 100 percent,” she said.
Read more at Kaiser Health News:
Nicholas joined TriMed in 2016 as the managing editor of the Chicago office. After receiving his master’s from Roosevelt University, he worked in various writing/editing roles for magazines ranging in topic from billiards to metallurgy. Currently on Chicago’s north side, Nicholas keeps busy by running, reading and talking to his two cats.