San Diego's Hepatitis A Outbreak: Water Warnings Went Unheeded
By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje
As the death toll continues to rise due to San Diego County’s hepatitis A virus outbreak, reports say water officials had warned about the risk for years.
County officials say that as of October 10, eighteen people have died and 490 cases of the virus have been documented, NBC News San Diego reported. Hepatitis A is a viral liver disease associated with unsafe water, according to the World Health Organization. It is sometimes transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated water.
“County officials announced that the local health emergency declared on Sept. 1 will remain in effect for another two weeks, while they work to get a handle on the outbreak. After a review of the current health situation, the County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to extend the declaration through Oct. 24,” NBC News reported.
It appears that water officials had warned for years about circumstances that could lead to the spread of hepatitis A.
“San Diego officials were informed repeatedly of the dangers of disease-carrying runoff from homeless encampments into area waterways, as far as a decade before the current hepatitis A crisis spurred action. Typical of the volumes of reports is a 2015 city plan for Mission Bay, which cited hepatitis research in setting priorities for officials regarding environmental quality,” The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
“A U-T Watchdog review of public records shows state water regulators and city officials produced nearly a dozen studies in the decade before this year’s outbreak, reports and policy documents highlighting the link between homeless camps and human waste-tainted water,” the report said.
The problems went unaddressed for years, the report said, citing documents from the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control board.
“By the end of last month, city leaders — faced with a headline-grabbing wave of hepatitis infections that has killed 17 people and sickened 481 others since November — had police sweep away downtown homeless encampments, while sanitation crews power-washed sidewalks with chlorine and bleach,” the report said.