Campbell County day care centers on alert for Hepatitis A
Thursday, officials will go to six licensed day cares with vaccines for workers and children age two and over.
They’re targeting children because they can have the virus without knowing it and still infect others.
Since the Regional Health Department declared a community-wide Hepatitis-A outbreak in Campbell County, day care owners say they’ve been even more vigilant about things like hand-washing.
“It makes me more aware,” Little Lamb Christian Day Care Center owner Mary Shiveley explains. “The kids are like, ‘Do we have to wash our hands again?'”

Shiveley says she always cleans with bleach and wears gloves when handling food.
As clean as her center may be, she sees why the health department is going to day care’s to vaccinate for Hepatitis A.
“I understand it because they could carry it and not know it,” Shiveley says. “They do tend to put things in their mouths, and hug other kids.”
The state already requires proof that children have been immunized for eight different diseases before going to day care. Caregivers have to have physicals on file and a tuberculosis test. Plus, the state has lots of other rules in place to protect children in day care.
“They’re very strict,” Shiveley explains. “You could just be sitting here, and they could knock on your door and they’re here to inspect you, and you don’t even have time to turn around.”
The Campbell County Health Department won’t come to Shiveley with vaccines because her daycare is smaller.
But Shiveley says she’ll go to them and encourage her parents to take their children.
“It really concerns you,” Shiveley explains. “You don’t want to see them sick. They’re scared to death of needles, and you don’t want them to have to go through that.”
Friday, the Campbell County Health Department will be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to give shots to any local child, age two to five.
The health department says adults should talk with a private physician if they’re interested in the two-dose vaccine.
Kay Watson, Reporter
WBIR-TV