Testing for Hepatitis A in Urban Waterways

The Hepatitis A outbreak continues to impact San Diegans throughout the City. It is critical that all steps are taken to prevent further spread of this dangerous pathogen. That is why I recently sent a letter
( attached) to various public agencies, including your office, requesting that an effort be made to sanitize urban waterways within the City. In a recent letter from the EPA ( attached) regarding this topic, it is stated that the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP), has affirmed that they are unaware of any effort to monitor surface water for any hepatitis virnses.

Given the current public health emergency related to Hepatitis A it is critical that we take all precautions possible to stop its spread and ensure that conditions do not worsen by allowing the vims to contaminate our urban waterways, beaches and bays. Monitoring surface waters for the Hepatitis A virus is a common sense action to take. I would ask that you, via the City's representative on the SCCWRP Commission, request such monitoring to take place in our urban waterways, bays and coastline in order to ascertain whether the virus exists in places like the San Diego River, Chollas Creek, Nestor Creek, Mission Bay, San Diego Bay and our beaches. If monitoring shows the presence of the Hepatitis A virus, an action plan should be explored to detennine how best to prevent the spread of the virus into other areas, such as the coastline.

Thank you for your prompt response.

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