Free hepatitis A vaccination offered to beachgoers

Source: Union-Tribune

MPERIAL BEACH — Surfers and bodyboarders come to Imperial Beach to catch the best waves. But if they swim in contaminated waters, they're at risk for catching something else. Hepatitis A, along with other disease-causing pathogens, can flourish along South Bay beaches as northbound ocean currents funnel polluted water from the Tijuana River into the Imperial Beach surf.

That's why, for the first time, health workers teamed up with environmental protection advocates Saturday to offer free hepatitis A vaccination to interested beachgoers.

. . .

Three years ago, San Diego State University researchers reported that hepatitis A was present in 80 percent of water samples taken off the Imperial Beach Pier.

In a 2007 survey, the nonprofit environmental group Wildcoast – a co-sponsor of Saturday's event – found that three out of five regular ocean users in Imperial Beach reported illnesses caused by water contamination.

. . .

“You can get hepatitis A anywhere, on any beach. ” said Dr. Daniel Johnson. “Imperial Beach is just being more proactive about it.”

Read more: http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/aug/22/bn22vaccine15727/

Instead of giving people shots, perhaps they should consider trying to get people to stop dumping medical waste in the ocean!

but meanwhile, there will be many beachgoers who will not become ill with HepA, and that's a good thing in itself.

Imperial Beach is on the US side, just north of the Mexican border. There's not much that can be done from there about what goes on in Mexico.

The Hepatitis A found in the water is not from dumped medical wastes- it is in untreated sewage the flows into the Tijuana River, and then into the ocean just south of Imperial Beach. When the river doesn't flow the ocean water at Imperial Beach isn't found to have Hepatitis A. When the river flows there are a lot of different bacteria and the Hepatitis A virus.

This article says, "Three years ago, San Diego State University researchers reported that hepatitis A was present in 80 percent of water samples taken off the Imperial Beach Pier." That's only true for the samples taken during wet weather. The study says, "The concentrations of Hepatitis A virus (HAV) and enteroviruses were below the limit of detection for all dry weather samples colected at IB." (http://publichealth.sdsu.edu/publications/gersb...)

The study says, "Over a two year period from 2003 to 2005, a total of 20 samples were assayed at two sites during both wet and dry weather: the surf zone at the mouth of the Tijuana River and the surfzone near the pier at Imperial Beach (B), California (about 2 km north of the mouth of the Tijuana River.) Hepatitis A virus (HAV) concentrations were detected in 79 and 93% of the wet-weather samples, respectively....The concentrations of HAV and enteroviruses were below the limit of detection for all dry weather samples collected at IB."

The water quality is a huge public health concern, but accuracy in reporting is a huge public concern, too.