Hepatitis Vaccinations For Food Workers Could Be Reality
KHTS News, Sunday, 20 May 2007
Mandatory Hepatitis A vaccinations being pushed by County board Full Story
To counter legal roadblocks preempting the County from imposing mandatory Hepatitis A vaccinations for food service workers, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich’s motion to sponsor State legislations amending the California Retail Food Code to mandate such vaccinations for public health.
Today’s action follows on Supervisor Antonovich’s previous motion to require Hepatitis A vaccinations for food service workers. On May 3, 2007, County Counsel discovered that the County is prevented by State law from imposing a universal vaccination requirement for food service workers.
Vaccinating food service workers against hepatitis A would be a great idea. But, I do not think the epidemiology and disease burden would warrant mandatory vaccinations. I think employers should offer it to their employees and explain the pros and cons. I do not think it should prohibit anyone from being gainfully employed. And of course, an employer does not have the right to pre-screen applicants to see if they have any of the below mentioned criteria to be considered high risk. According to CDC, people who are most at risk are:
•Household contacts of infected persons
•Sex contacts of infected persons
•Persons, especially children, living in areas with increased rates of hepatitis A during the baseline period from 1987-1997.
•Persons traveling to countries where hepatitis A is common
•Men who have sex with men
•Injecting and non-injecting drug users
Although, food service workers come in contact with a lot of different people and surfaces which may be infected with hepatitis A; proper hygiene (hand washing) can prevent many cases. So, before we jump to mandatory vaccinations and all of the red tape, maybe a focus should be on proper sanitation. Besides, hepatitis A just recently became universally recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for all children aged 12-23 months. Before, it was only recommended for the high risk groups. Since the implementation of vaccination, the incidence has greatly decreased to a rate of less than 10 cases per 100,000 persons for all age groups in 2004. In addition, food borne outbreaks of hepatitis A are pretty infrequent in the United States, even where food handlers are infected.
Reference:
MMWR. Prevention of Hepatitis A through active and passive immunization. Retrieved July 10, 2007 from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/rr/rr5507.pdf