King County taking action to prevent hepatitis A outbreak

King County is making what it calls a “rare” move to prevent a deadly disease outbreak after seeing the turmoil in California.

This week, San Diego police are removing hundreds of homeless people off the streets to power wash the sidewalks with bleach.

It's an effort to stop the hepatitis A outbreak that's sweeping through the city. The virus has killed 17 people and infected 450 more.

“The homeless population has been most affected,” said John Gilvar, who manages health care for the homeless in King County.

He says there are no cases here yet, but seeing San Diego officials struggle to contain the hepatitis A outbreak has King County concerned.

“We’re trying to get ahead of things here and prevent an outbreak altogether if we possibly can,” Gilvar said.

Hepatitis A is a highly contagious liver disease that lives in fecal matter. The CDC says the virus usually gets in to your body though the mouth, after you touch food, drinks or an object contaminated by someone who is infected.

That means people who live in close quarters with limited access to hand-washing are most at risk.

“It is a big concern because there are so many people here in King County who are living unsheltered," Gilvar said. “That’s the population we're focusing on first. That's where we're worried the most that there could be an outbreak that spreads rapidly.”

This year's homeless count, called "Point in Time," found nearly 50 percent of Seattle's homeless population, or about 5,500 people, were unsheltered.

William Bailey has been homeless for about a year. He says access to public restrooms is a constant challenge.

“There's been times when I've had to go outside, and use something out of my bag or something to clean myself. I try to keep sanitizer in my bag, but going to the bathroom, period, is pretty hard around Seattle,” Bailey said. “It's very frustrating.

King County officials are very aware of the problem.

“It’s hard to find public bathrooms and hand-washing places, so it's important that people know they're at risk if they're living outside,” Gilvar said.

The county is starting with education, sending informational flyers to all organizations that work with the homeless.

The biggest message: wash your hands.

"I'd say it's pretty rare to do as widespread of a push as we're doing right now," Gilvar said. "It's a pretty simple thing people can do to reduce their risk, but we really need to get that word out far and wide."

An outreach group, Compass Housing Alliance, got a stack of those flyers Thursday.

“We are very concerned because we get a lot of migrating homeless who come to our area for more support, so we feel that there's a likelihood we could get the same outbreak here,” said Diallo Jackson, a program manager at Compass Housing Alliance.

Jackson says there are more than 200 people who they serve every day, and he’s met people homeless in Seattle from California.

“I immediately decided oh man, we've got to jump on this,” he said.

The flyers are going up immediately but because not everyone reads them, the staff will also be talking with people one-on-one.

Part of the facility is the "Hygiene Center" with bathrooms that anyone can use.

“We want everyone to know they always have the ability to get into a clean bathroom, use the restroom, wash their hands,” Jackson said.

King County is also working adding extra staff to its mobile medical vans, to hold immunization clinics for people living homeless.

As for the average citizen, KIRO7’s Deedee Sun asked public health, “As a Seattle resident or somebody lives in area, what do I need to know?”

“You can always get vaccinated against hepatitis A,” Gilvar replied.

The county does recommend vaccinations for at-risk groups (listed below) but emphasizes there is no outbreak here -- and says it's working, to keep it that way.

King County says it's also working with the city of Seattle to check in with tent city leaders and make sure there's adequate hand-washing access at those locations.

All people with these risk factors for hepatitis A infection should get vaccinated to protect themselves. People who are at increased risk include:

• People living homeless, especially those living unsheltered with poor access to hand-washing facilities
• People who are living with or caring for a person who already has hepatitis A
• People who have sex with people with hepatitis A
• Men who have sex with men
• Illicit drug users (does not have to be injection drugs)
• People with clotting disorders like hemophilia
• International travelers (to countries where HepA is common)
• People with chronic liver disease, including hepatitis B and hepatitis C are at increased risk for severe infections.

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