Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
LA Tries To Get Ahead Of Highly Contagious Hep A Outbreak That's Sweeping San Diego
Los Angeles Times: San Diego Is Struggling With A Huge Hepatitis A Outbreak. Is It Coming To L.A.?
Health officials in San Diego have scrambled for months to contain an outbreak of hepatitis A — vaccinating more than 19,000 people, putting up posters at bus stations and distributing hand sanitizer and cleansing wipes. Despite those efforts, 16 people have died of the highly contagious virus in San Diego County and hundreds have become ill in what officials say is the nation’s second-largest outbreak of hepatitis A in decades.Earlier this month, San Diego officials declared a public health emergency. (Karlamangla, 9/16)
Los Angeles Times: San Diego Opens Downtown Restrooms Amid Hepatitis A Crisis
New portable public restrooms were opened in downtown San Diego over the weekend in an effort to help combat the growing hepatitis outbreak that has killed 16 people and infected more than 400 since last fall, officials said. The dearth of 24-hour public restrooms downtown has long been cited as a shortcoming in the city — an inconvenience for visitors and a more dire problem for the growing homeless population. (Smolens, 9/16)
San Diego Union-Tribune: Diners Warned Of Possible Hepatitis Exposure At San Diego Beach Restaurant
A person at a Pacific Beach restaurant may have exposed an unknown number of customers to hepatitis A on seven different days, according to the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency. Anyone who may have eaten or had a drink at the World Famous restaurant at 711 Pacific Beach Drive in San Diego at specific times on dates in late August and early September “may have been exposed to a person with the hepatitis A virus,” according to a statement released Friday morning by the county. (Sisson, 9/15)
The San Diego Union-Tribune: Restaurants, Diners Taking Precautions After Latest Hepatitis A Scare
A day after news that San Diego’s deadly hepatitis A outbreak may have infiltrated the food service industry, more than 200 people lined up for vaccinations, restaurants reinforced their health safety measures and the city opened a new set of portable public restrooms downtown in an effort to gain some control over the disease’s spread. “All eyes are on San Diego,” Steve Zolezzi, president of the Food & Beverage Association of San Diego, said of the outbreak, one of the nation’s largest in decades which prompted county officials to declare a local public health emergency earlier this month. (Nikolewski, 9/16)
