15 dead from Hepatitis A outbreak among San Diego homeless

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) — The Hepatitis A outbreak among San Diego homeless has taken 15 lives in the last ten months.

The outbreak in Downtown San Diego has been declared by county health officials as a “state of emergency”.

In the past two decades, the epidemic has killed a total caseload of close to four hundred people.

The virus lives in human feces and is spread with lack of hygiene, such as not washing ones hands after the process of elimination.

To fight the Hepatitis A outbreak, special hand-washing stations have been set up around the downtown area.