By South OB Girl
By now most San Diegans are aware of the Hepatitis A outbreak in the city. If you would like some information about the availability of free vaccination — read on.
Free hepatitis A vaccinations will be available at the San Diego Central Library on September 19 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Also, the county is giving away the hepatitis A vaccine at no cost, and it’s available at the Family Health Centers, the San Ysidro Health Center, Vista Community Clinic, and La Maestra’s City Heights and El Cajon clinics.
And– wash your hands! You don’t even have to use hot water — in fact you’ll take your skin right off if you use water hot enough to kill the virus. Just soap up well and take 20 seconds to work the lather around, then rinse thoroughly, the CDC says. Probably a good idea to use hot water when you can though.
The vaccine is available to be administered at our local OB Rite Aid pharmacy on Niagra. Cost is based on insurance. Without insurance the vaccine about $140.
CVS on Santa Monica does NOT have the vaccine available, with or without insurance. The CVS Minute Clinic on Rosecrans and Midway (3327 Midway Dr.) has the vaccine, cost based on insurance or $145 without insurance.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Some national media has briefly mentioned that a five year-old died in the San Diego Hepatitus A outbreak. Others have mentioned multiple food servers in San Diego. The more local coverage seems to focus on the homeless. Does anybody have more detail? Not every location carries the Hepatitus A vaccine, Target for example.
Just received this email about free Hep A vaccainations in OB: “we will have free Hepatitis A Vaccinations this Saturday morning 9/23/17. From 7:30-9:30am.
At the ECC Episcopal Church Center 2083 Sunset Cliffs Blvd. Ocean Beach has the 2nd largest homeless population in the County.”
Blessings,
Glyn Franks
Second Chances
This is fantastic… Now, how to actually round folks up and get a shot… That might be the hard part.
There was some discussion this weekend about rankings for areas in the city re number of homeless. Whatever the statiscs may be — it is very difficult for the City to obtain an accurate count of individuals who move from place to place, have no address, are undocumented, or do not go to facilities that would contribute in some way in providing a count of the number of houseless individuals. Any such data would be representative and have some degree of error.
If you have in mind to go to your doctor to get this Hep A vaccine, think again. This is not a vaccine covered by Medicare, and may not be covered by your private insurance. It is not on the list of free vaccines many places. However, you may be able to get it at a pharmacy. As the standard cost is $140, which is not directly paid by insurance, but 25% may or may not be reimbursable, think twice before you decide not to stand in the homeless line and go to the doctor for it. I may have misinterpreted something, but this is how I understood it after an hour on the phone.
You can get Hep A vaccinations for free. I just verified it this morning.
Check the county health website here:http://www.sdiz.org/Community/IZ-Clinics.html
Or google san diego county hepatitis immunization
Because it has been declared an emergency, the county is providing free vaccinations. They’re being given at all county public health offices.
Thank you for publicizing the free aspects. As most vaccines, such as the flu vaccine, are without cost everywhere for people with Medicare, I was just pointing out that this is not the case with the Hepatitis A vaccine. It was only for people with a problem for whatever reason (like location) who are looking at other options.
That statement about the homeless population is inaccurate I’m curious to see who at the ECC made it but the clinic that is there on Wednesday and Saturday is offering free hepatitis vaccines. Most of the homeless in Ocean Beach have received them
Glyn is not a representative of the ECC he is someone who provides a meal on Saturdays
What community does have the second-largest homeless population? And how is it calculated? Homeless per geographical area, or homeless compared to numbers not homeless? Communities have various definitions, and I don’t know the answer. It does seem like washing down the streets in front of city hall benefitted the people who work there also.