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U.S. NEWS Friday 21 december 2018

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State audit slams San Diego

response to hepatitis A outbreak

By JULIE WATSON he said. "Because the peo- port said.
Associated Press ple being impacted were San Diego city government
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The city homeless people, there officials "agree with the
and county of San Diego was not the same sense of recommendations, par-
failed to quickly recognize urgency." ticularly that the city and
and control a Hepatitis A The county did not share county should strengthen
outbreak that grew into enough information with their relationship as it re-
one of the largest in recent the city when the outbreak lates to responding to re-
history, killing 20 and send- was detected in March gional emergencies," said
ing nearly 400 to hospitals, 2017, causing the city to city chief operating officer In this Sept. 28, 2017 file photo a man passes behind a sign
according to a state audit not fully recognize the se- Kris Michell.q warning of an upcoming street cleaning in San Diego.
released Thursday. riousness of what was hap- Associated Press
The county lacked a con- pening and delaying its re-
crete hepatitis A preven- sponse, the audit found.
tion plan that led to a de- If the county had admin-
lay in getting the most vul- istered mass vaccinations
nerable residents vaccinat- sooner, the outbreak might
ed, and mass vaccinations not have grown to as large
did not happen until after as it did, the audit found.
a health emergency had The number of new cases
been declared, according tripled to about 20 cases
to the audit conducted by per week from May through
the state auditor at the re- September 2017, com-
quest of lawmakers. pared with six new cases
The disease killed 20 peo- per week during March
ple, most of them home- 2017.
less. More than 580 were More vaccinations were
infected, and nearly 400 administered in September
people were hospitalized. 2017 than in the previous
The city was also slow to six months combined, and
respond, according to the the effort led to a decline in
audit. Six months into the new cases, the audit found.
outbreak, the city began The county declared the
power-washing streets and outbreak over in October
installing hand-washing after 100 days passed with
stations and public rest- no new cases.
rooms downtown, where The auditor said lawmak-
streets were lined with tents ers should enact legisla-
of homeless people. tion requiring local health
Hepatitis A is a highly con- officers to promptly notify
tagious liver disease spread local public entities within
through dirty hands and their jurisdictions about
other contact. outbreaks that may affect
Mike McConnell, an advo- them and provide the lo-
cate for San Diego's home- cations of where cases are
less population, said the concentrated, the number
more he read the audit, of residents affected, and
"the more angry I got." He the measures that should
said officials did not act be taken.
until an affluent resident The California Department
went to the county board of Public Health also should
of supervisors after getting amend its disease out-
infected and expressed his break response plan to in-
concern, and then reports clude asking jurisdictions to
of the outbreak began to set vaccination targets, es-
affect San Diego's tourism tablish dates to meet those
industry. targets, and determine
"There was just negligence," needed resources, the re-