Collateral Damage Is Also A Concern

Spokane County’s recent “call to action” urging countywide vaccination against hepatitis A is reminiscent of the cartoon character who takes after a mosquito with a shotgun. In the final frame, our hero sits in the rubble of his shotgun-blasted home, exhausted but pleased he’s accomplished his mission. And then … bzzzzzzzzzzzz - off flies the mosquito.

Dr. Kim Thorburn tempted the same fate last week. As chief health officer for the Spokane Regional Health District, she issued an ill-advised call for countywide vaccinations against hepatitis A.

Thorburn acknowledges the outbreak will not be brought under control through voluntary vaccinations but said she felt responsible to tell individuals what they could do to protect themselves. “This is a vaccine-preventable disease.”

The reason Spokane is in the national spotlight, Thorburn said, is because the county responded to the outbreak rather than sit back and wait.

However, national media reports mention little about county reaction and lots about unwashed rubes from the backwoods.

Residents who have received calls from people out of the area wondering if it is safe to come to Spokane might see it differently.

This isn’t the first time Thorburn has sounded a hepatitis alarm.

In November, she threatened to declare an emergency to force all food service workers, intravenous drug users and jail inmates to get the vaccine.

She later backed off, contending people were cooperating and getting vaccinated. But the damage was done. Suddenly, all Spokane restaurants were suspect - even though no case of hepatitis had been traced from restaurant workers to their customers.

The hepatitis rate in Spokane is high but it is no cause for terror. This isn’t AIDS. It’s not polio. Other Washington counties have had higher rates of hepatitis than Spokane in the past five years.

Rates in those counties fell partly because the disease is cyclical and partly because health officials employed carefully reasoned strategies to fight the disease.

Hepatitis is frustrating to fight. Some of the those at greatest risk, such as street-drug users, are not easy to reach. However, the health district has launched a variety of information programs to fight the outbreak, which is starting to level off.

Thorburn’s dedication is unquestionable. But the big blast approach to bringing hepatitis under control is causing more panic than prevention.

For the long-term good of the community, we need thoughtful strategies, not alarmism.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Kafentzis/For the editorial board