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June 21, 2002

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Infectious Disease Spreads Panic Across Polk County"

Orlando Sentinel (www.orlandosentinel.com) (06/16/02) P. B1; Erickson, Stephanie

Florida's Polk County Health Department has recorded 185 cases of hepatitis A in the first five months of this year, which is significantly more than the 153 cases the county recorded for all of 2001.  The outbreak has claimed the lives of at least two people in the area, and health officials say they recently recorded nine cases of hepatitis A per week.  A team of 15 medical investigators is working to track the disease outbreak and treat all potentially infected people with immune globulin before the disease attacks their liver and spreads to more people.  However, talking with the thousands of potentially infected people and writing down where they ate in the past two weeks and then analyzing the results to figure out the disease's path of infection is hard and time-consuming even for 15 medical investigators.  Although it is difficult to get cooperation from methamphetamine users, who are at high risk of contracting the disease, many drug users are voluntarily showing up to health departments to get the vaccine, according to Health Department director Daniel Haight.

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