The shortage of Hepatitis A vaccine put the U.S. on a difficult situation.

The CNN news reported there is a national shortage of Hepatitis A Vaccine and difficult to against it.

Hepatitis A is the disease that cause of Hepatitis A virus.  This virus infects people through contaminated water and ice, vegetables and fruits, and fishery products.  It is also infected by sexual contact. 

About 2 to 7 weeks after the latency period, symptoms such as sudden fever, tiredness of the whole body, inappetence, and nausea and vomiting are seen.  Then jaundice appears a few days later.  There no specific treatment against Hepatitis A except coping therapy and vaccine, so having Hepatitis A vaccine is better way to protect from it.

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention told “Current supply is not sufficient to support demand for vaccine.”  In South east Michigan, 495 cases of Hepatitis A and 19 deaths are reported.  Like Southeast Michigan, the outbreak is occurred in California. At least 644 people are sickened, and 21 people lost their lives.  Although number of people who have Hepatitis virus has increased, Hepatitis A vaccine is less than the demand of it.

There are several reasons that put people in the Hepatitis A vaccine shortage.  First, only two companies approved to produce the vaccine.  Second, Outbreaks of Hepatitis A is normally small because the US population was inoculated as children.   Because of it, Hepatitis A vaccine should not be happened.  Third, the types of Hepatitis A virus are not normally found in the US.  The type of virus that currently found is IB.  This type of virus is not normally found in the US, but it is common in the Mediterranean, Turkey, and South Africa.  The current vaccine is effective against all strains of virus, so the demands of vaccine is increased and make shortage of vaccine.