Hepatitis A has been cropping up across the United States, with Michigan been the hardest hit with almost 22 deaths. It is largely believed that the virus is being spread though person-to-person transmission rather than larger scale fomite transmission. To tackle this issue, vaccination efforts have been revamped, but they are hampered by a shortage of vaccine from Merck. As a result, there is a delayed capacity to respond to the outbreak and vaccinate people in the areas that need it most. The vaccine has been in use since 1995, and since its introduction, incidence of infection by the virus had dropped to almost 95% of what it was.
On the west coast, the spread of the HAV virus can be traced to illicit drug users in San Diego, in the biggest resurgence of HAV infection since the mid-1990’s. In nearby Utah, there were 97 cases linked to a food worker at a convenience store. Thus, public health officials are encouraging all food workers to be vaccinated against Hepatitis A virus, as it is not required by law but of great importance to containing this recent outbreak. The article cites 14 days as the window period after exposure such that the HAV vaccine will act to prevent infection and the spread of the virus to uninfected individuals. If this is true, then working fast to increase the stock of HAV vaccine is imperative to ensure that there isn’t more loss of life to this viral infection.
-Andrew
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