Public health officials in Oregon plan to vaccinate homeless populations against hepatitis A, due to recent spikes in the disease, according to The Bulletin, a central Oregon news website.
"The homeless population just seems like the perfect setup for this transmission," said Paul Cieslak, MD, medical director for communicable diseases and immunizations at Portland-based Oregon Health Authority’s public health division. "You’ve got people living without the benefit of running water and often without toilet or sewage."
In 2017, the CDC reported 1,521 cases of hepatitis A in California, Kentucky, Michigan and Utah. About 57 percent reported drug use, homelessness or both, prompting the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to adding homelessness to the vaccination list.
Oregon has vaccinated against hepatitis A longer than other states due to rates of high infection. Reported Oregon infection rates have dropped by about 3,000 cases in '99 to a total of 103 cases from 2013 to 2017.
In 2018, Oregon saw only 20 cases, four of whom were people under age 40. Oregon also added homelessness as a reason to receive a hep A vaccination.
"Vaccination has knocked this disease down," Dr. Cieslak told The Bulletin. "Many times adults get it from kids, and we knocked it out of the child population with vaccination."
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