Another bit of news this week in San Diego that once again sends a signal about the seriousness of the biggest problem we have.
Public health officials announcing this week that they have begun a hepatitis A vaccination campaign at a local homeless shelter after seeing a recent rise in the number of cases in the community.
The county says that while usually only two to three cases of severe hepatitis A infection are reported each month, there have been at least five cases in slightly less than a month. The increase in cases does not yet meet the definition of an outbreak, but it is an alarm that sends a warning that there could be.
And of course that would not be new. A large hepatitis A outbreak in San Diego, that began in 2016 and continued into 2018, mostly among those who were homeless, led to 20 deaths.
This new vaccination effort is aimed preventing that from happening again.
This news has sparked even more concerns about the homeless problem in San Diego that our city leaders all say and that everyone knows has gotten worse and not better.
Let’s hope the vaccination campaign will lead to a shot in the arm toward taking more action to solve the bigger problem of homelessness.
(Photo reporting partner ABC10News)