To try and curb the flow of new Hepatitis A cases in Citrus County, the Citrus County Community Charitable Foundation is donating $45,000 to pay for additional vaccinations, calling the rising number of infections throughout Florida an emergency.
CCCCF board members voted 8-1 to bypass their regular grant process and give the money to the Florida Department of Health in Citrus County when its director, Ernesto “Tito” Rubio, asked for help. Rubio is also a CCCCF member. The money would be enough to pay for 750 additional vaccinations in the county’s attempt to protect from a disease that has claimed one county resident.
The DOH in Citrus County reported the county’s first death Monday from the disease that’s transmitted through human feces. Audrey Stasko, spokeswoman for the DOH in Citrus County, would not give any information about the September death other than in was a Citrus County resident and that the person had other underlying health issues.
Rubio’s request for the financial help came on the heels of the DOH’s latest report for Sept. 15-21, during which Citrus County had nine new cases, the highest increase of any Florida county.
Citrus County has at least 67 cases. There are more than 2,600 throughout Florida.
In his request to the CCCCF for the money, Rubio said the local Department of Health gave out more than 1,000 vaccinations. But because those vaccinations were paid for using federal and state funding, Rubio said he could offer those vaccinations only to people most at risk, such as drug users, the homeless, sexually active homosexual men.
In contrast, the foundation’s money can be used to pay for vaccines and offered to anyone.
“So I’m asking that you work with the department of health,” Rubio told the foundation members.
Florida statutes allow the foundation to work with the Department of Health and fund its projects. The foundation gets money from the Citrus County Hospital Board from the lease of Citrus Memorial Hospital. The foundation invests the money and gives the bulk of the revenues to fund local, non-profit health care initiatives.
Rubio’s plan is for DOH staff to travel to and offer the new vaccinations in three areas of the county: Hernando, Homosassa, and Beverly Hills. The vaccinations would be free to the public.
The first of the Hepatitis A clinics will be 4-6 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 11, at the Homosassa Lions Club, 8385 W. County Road 490. The other events haven’t been scheduled.
Rubio said he wants to move quickly with this.
“We want to get the word out and help as many people as we can,” he told the Chronicle. “We’re not messing around with this.”
The number of Florida cases thus far in 2019 is five times greater than in all of 2018. More than 60 percent of people infected since 2018 engaged in at least one risky behavior, including drug or injection drug use, homelessness, men having sex with men, according to the DOH.
Citrus County has also seen a similar growth in Hepatitis A cases, with each month more reported than the month before. In March, there were two new cases, in April three, May five, June six, July nine, August 15, and during September there were 25 with three additional cases pending.
If the CCCCF had not given Rubio the $45,000 it would have gone back to its principal investment fund. The foundation had given away $228,000 this past grant cycle and the $45,000 was unspent money.
The sole vote against giving Rubio the money was from Sophia Diaz-Fonseca, the CCCCF president. She warned that giving the money would fly in the face of the foundation’s procedures for how it awards grants.
“If you do this you’ll open a whole can of worms,” she said, adding later, “We’re not set up for people to walk up here (outside the process) and ask for money.
She also said the rise of Hepatitis A cases has been going on several months and Rubio could have petitioned the foundation, or the Citrus County Hospital Board, for money long ago and through regular channels.
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