Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The 8 Florida Counties With The Most New Hepatitis A Infections

Hepatitis A sign
Julio Ochoa
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Central Florida continues to see record numbers of hepatitis A cases. 

As of last week, eight Florida counties – all surrounding the I-4 corridor – have reported more than 100 cases of hepatitis A this year. Pasco and Pinellas counties have the most, with more than 340 new infections in each.

But Volusia County ranks third with just over 208 infections. Orange County is fourth with 150 cases, and Marion County is in sixth with 113 new infections.

Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a public health emergency early this month. The state is offering free vaccines to populations at risk, including drug users and people who have recently experienced homelessness.

Last week, more than 6,400 Floridians were vaccinated against hepatitis A.

The Florida Department of Health is actively working to vaccinate those most at risk for hepatitis A infection,” the department wrote in its weekly surveillance report. “Since October 2018, the number of first doses of hepatitis A vaccine administered by both private providers and county health departments to adults age 18 years and older, as recorded in Florida SHOTS, remained well above the previous 5-year-average.”

Health officials stress the importance of washing your hands as the disease is spread through the fecal-to-oral route. See the table below for a full list of all Florida counties.

Pasco     374

Pinellas     344

Volusia     208

Orange     150

Hillsborough     122

Marion     113

Manatee     103

Hernando     101

Lake     98

Brevard     85

Lee     54

Palm Beach     54

Sarasota     44

Seminole     40

Citrus     39

Martin     33

St. Lucie     33

Polk     31

Sumter     31

Osceola     30

Charlotte     17

Miami-Dade     27

Broward     13

Santa Rosa     13

Duval     9

Okeechobee     9

Indian River     8

Levy     7

Bay     6

St. Johns     6

Alachua     5

Flagler     5

Okaloosa     5

Taylor     5

Collier     4

Jackson     4

Clay     3

Columbia     3

Escambia     3

Leon     3

Nassau     3

DeSoto     2

Glades     2

Hendry     2

Putnam     2

Wakulla     2

Walton     2

Franklin     1

Gilchrist     1

Hamilton     1

Hardee     1

Liberty     1

Madison     1

Monroe     1

Suwannee     1

Washington     1

Baker     0

Bradford     0

Calhoun     0

Dixie     0

Gadsden     0

Gulf     0

Highlands     0

Holmes     0

Jefferson     0

Lafayette     0

Union     0

WMFE is a partner with Health News Florida, a statewide collaborative reporting on health care.

Health reporting on WMFE is supported in part by AdventHealth.

Health News Florida reporter Abe Aboraya works for WMFE in Orlando. He started writing for newspapers in high school. After graduating from the University of Central Florida in 2007, he spent a year traveling and working as a freelance reporter for the Seattle Times and the Seattle Weekly, and working for local news websites in the San Francisco Bay area. Most recently Abe worked as a reporter for the Orlando Business Journal. He comes from a family of health care workers.