Ryan Nicol
The Hepatitis A public health emergency has resulted in 3,327 cases identified by the Department of Health this year. The most recent week saw an additional 49 cases reported.
That’s according to the latest department numbers covering Jan. 2019 through Dec. 2019. But health officials hope the outbreak is on its way to being contained.
The 2019 figures represent a sharp climb from 2018, which saw just 548 Hepatitis A cases. That mark was also an increase from previous years. In 2017, just 276 cases were identified. The number of Hepatitis A reports failed to top 123 cases from 2014 to 2016.
In total, 1,175 cases were identified from the five-year period covering 2014 to 2018. That’s nearly one third of the cases from 2019 alone.
The contagious virus can attack the liver and is spread through consumption of contaminated food or water and from person to person. That can happen, for instance, if people don’t wash their hands adequately after going to the restroom.
Surgeon General Scott Rivkees briefed the Senate on the outbreak back in September.
“This has had a serious impact on the state of Florida,” Rivkees said. “Nearly every county in Florida has been affected by a case of Hepatitis A.”
Indeed, 58 of Florida’s 67 counties reported at least one case of Hepatitis A during this calendar year.
Pasco County was most affected by the virus in 2019. A total of 413 cases were identified in Pasco. Pinellas County was second with 377 cases, followed by Volusia with 301.
While additional cases were identified in the past week, the rate of new cases has slowed. That’s thanks in part to efforts to increase vaccinations and public awareness about the outbreak. During his September briefing, Rivkees estimated officials will need to vaccinate 80 percent of the state’s high-risk population to get a handle on the outbreak.
That “high-risk” pool is made up of the homeless and drug-addicted population.
According to a report last week, Rivkees says officials have hit about 68 percent of that population so far.
While those numbers are encouraging, Rivkees says he doesn’t have a target date for when the outbreak will cease.
“Nobody can predict,” Rivkees said.
“But all I can say is since we declared a public-health emergency, the number of new cases of hepatitis A cases that we’ve seen statewide is under half of what we were seeing before we declared a public health emergency.”
2 comments
The Swampfox
December 24, 2019 at 10:56 am
You can thank the democrats for this especially Nancy Pelosi along with Chuckle (I never met a camera I didn’t like) Schumer. for encouraging homeless people to live on the street by not getting them off aka. Sanctuary City Laws!!! WTF are these idiots thinking?? They block the building of the wall, the USMCA which they passed only after their bogus impeachment hearing. They are using their own powers to subvert the people, for their personal gain! Vote the democrats out in 2020 and send them to hell where they belong! The average democrat must be aghast of the radical direction their party has taken. The silent majority will take care of this in November!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Mary Ewing
December 26, 2019 at 9:41 am
I live in Broward county and personally know of 2 people that were falsely reported with hepatitis to the Health Dept. Both were reported by private blood testing sites.
Both went through a stressful time with infectious control Drs. waiting for appointments and extra expenses associated with specialty Drs. Both have insurance and are not homeless or drug users. So I’m calling BS on this whole story. I don’t know who benefits from all these false positives but I bet someone does.
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