Deadly Hepatitis outbreak threatens local homeless

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A deadly Hepatitis outbreak in San Diego recently took the lives of several homeless people and is feared to threaten Imperial Valley.

Calexico Brown Bag Coalition Co-Founder Maribel Padilla said, “They had a 181 people with it and then four people have already died and it’s mainly the homeless.”

Padilla said they are taking action to help prevent the same from happening locally.

“Today we are passing out these kits so they can wash their hands,” Padilla said. ”

On Saturday, the coalition started distributing par of 100 kits they have prepared, which contain items to prevent the disease.

“Flyers that give you a little bit of information on the actual illness and then what steps you can take to guard against it,” Padilla said.

“Bbrown Bag prepared bags with the flyer in it, two bottles of water and we included a soap and a bottle of hand sanitizer,” Padilla said.

The coalition is reaching out mainly to the 70 homeless people they feed every night at a parking lot across the One Stop facility on Second Street.

“Letting them know to spread the word, use this, so we don’t get that down here. So, we prevent from having that outbreak here,” Padilla said.

She said the coalition reached out to the local health department for help.

“The only thing the Health Department gave me was the actual flyer. And Brown Bag Coalition bought the water, the soap, and we bought the hand sanitizers,” Padilla said.

She said the Health Department informed her that no Hepatitis cases have been reported locally yet. But, the coalition is working on preventing an outbreak such as the San Diego one.

“if we can try to prevent it, then we’ll do that,” Padilla said. .

KSWT spoke to a homeless man who had received a kit. He told us he felt knowing somebody cared for them.

“If anybody would like to donate they can look us up on Facebook, and it’s Brown Bag Coalition. Just send us a message,” Padilla added hopefully.