During a hepatitis A emergency, there's a nationwide shortage of vaccine

This article is particularly worrying because it shows that there is shortage of vaccine to combat against hepatitis A within the United States despite there being outbreaks across the country. Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement that there is not enough supply of vaccine to fight against hepatitis A within the nation. As of now, there have been 495 documented incidents of hepatitis A infection in southeast Michigan and 644 in California. Hepatitis A has also spread to other states. The CDC has been working at the state and local level in order to vaccinate those they deem as “at-risk populations.”

In the United States, most children are vaccinated against hepatitis A at just one years of age. In addition, the number of cases of hepatitis A were quite low, so there was no need to stockpile huge amounts of hepatitis A vaccine. This is why there is now a shortage of this vaccine. The outbreak of hepatitis A that is plaguing the United States currently is of the genotype IB. This genotype is usually found in the eastern part of the world, such as South Africa, Turkey and the Mediterranean. As of now, there are only two pharmaceutical companies that are allowed to sell adult vaccines of hepatitis A: Merck and GlaxoSmithKline. Due to the rise of hepatitis A outbreak, Merck is now trying to upscale the amount of vaccines they produce and GlaxoSmithKline is now working with the CDC and other public health officials to help with making sure the vaccines reach the desired populations so that this outbreak can finally be controlled.

Eyasu Kebede

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/15/health/hepatitis-a-outbreak-vaccine-shortage/index.html