California Coast’s Homeless Getting HepA Vaccinations

For the past few months, the homeless and drug-addicted population in San Diego have been the focus of a hepatitis A outbreak.

This week, new information from various health officials shows this Hep A outbreak has a much broader geographic range, and is not limited to a person’s socioeconomic status.

The current Hepatitis A outbreaks are among homeless people in San Diego, Santa Cruz and Los Angeles.

In San Diego's weekly Hep A report, the county disclosed a total of 481 cases, with a 70 percent hospitalization rate.

Moreover, 17 people have died, which is 3.7 percent of the total number of cases.

To slow down this Hep A outbreak, the state of California approved a September 20, 2017 emergency request seeking temporary permission for paramedics to vaccinate at-risk individuals. With this authorization, paramedics will provide hepatitis A vaccinations under the supervision of nurses at special events.

Up the coast in San Francisco, the Health Department is launching an initative to vaccinate its homeless community for Hepatitis A.

“The at-risk populations for Hepatitis A infection are homeless and drug using communities,” said Barbara Garcia, Director of Health. “We are directly reaching out to these populations to provide vaccinations to ensure that we reduce the risks of a Hepatitis A outbreak in San Francisco.”

This year, San Francisco has already reported 13 Hep A cases. They are focusing this new vaccination effort on the homeless people, and men who have sex
with men.

Where can people in San Francisco get HepA vaccines?

• Anyone with a health care provider, or a primary care clinic, should ask for the vaccine there,
• Vaccinations are being given at homeless shelters and navigation centers throughout the City,
• Outreach teams are visiting encampments,
• To find a HepA vaccine location, visit the Vaccine Finder. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), you should get hepatitis A vaccine if you:

• are traveling to countries where hepatitis A is common
• are a man who has sex with other men
• use illegal drugs
• have a chronic liver disease such as hepatitis B or hepatitis C
• are being treated with clotting-factor concentrates
• work with hepatitis A-infected animals or in a hepatitis A research laboratory

Someone with hepatitis can be contagious to others before they develop symptoms.  

The early signs and symptoms of hepatitis A appear two to seven weeks after exposure and commonly include mild fever, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dark urine, light color stools, pain in the upper right abdomen, and yellowness to the eyes or skin (jaundice).

Anyone who has been immunized with the hepatitis A vaccine or previously had the disease, are considered protected from the virus.

Individuals can obtain hepatitis A immunizations through their primary care physicians, and through many pharmacies.

Hepatitis A vaccine is an inactivated (killed) vaccine, according to the CDC.

You will need 2 doses for long-lasting protection. These doses should be given at least 6 months apart. Children are routinely vaccinated between their first and second birthdays (12 through 23 months of age).

Older children and adolescents can get the vaccine after 23 months. Adults who have not been vaccinated previously and want to be protected against hepatitis A can also get the vaccine.

There are three FDA approved monovalent hepatitis A vaccines:

• Vaqta (Merck) and Havrix (GlaxoSmithKline Beecham Biologicals), are approved for people ≥12 months of age in a 2-dose series
• A combined hepatitis A and hepatitis B Twinrix, (GlaxoSmithKline) vaccine is approved for people ≥18 years of age in the United States

The CDC Vaccine Price List provides current HAV vaccine contract prices and general information.

Vaccine discounts can be found here.