Almost half of Colorado’s Hepatitis A outbreak centralized to El Paso County
Starting in October of 2018, Colorado saw an increase of people contracting Hepatitis A, and many of these cases were reported in El Paso County.
In the last year, the Colorado Department of Health has reported 303 cases statewide.
Nearly half of the cases, 131 people, have been reported in El Paso County. Denver County comes in 2nd with 86 cases.
Haley Zachary, an epidemiologist with the El Paso County Department of Health says most of the cases in our area are from the homeless community.
"A lot of cases are being transmitted from person to person and a lot of those are being are found in our homeless and substance abuse population."
She continues, "more often it's going to be sharing things like cigarettes, sharing food or sharing drugs or anything that one person touches and another person puts in their mouth."
Across the country, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported as of December 6th, 2019, there are 28,985 cases and 296 deaths.
According to the CDC, the virus is highly contagious and those experiencing homelessness are at high-risk for contraction.