The hepatitis A outbreak in California that has claimed 17 lives may not have peaked and could take a year or more to abate, health officials said Thursday.
The contagious, liver-damaging illness has infected at least 568 people since November, mainly in San Diego, Santa Cruz and Los Angeles counties.
People without symptoms can carry the illness, and health officials suspect that transients in San Diego County spread it through other homeless populations around the state.
More than 480 cases of the illness, including all 17 deaths, have occurred in San Diego County, which declared a public health emergency last month.
There have been 70 cases in Santa Cruz County, 12 in Los Angeles County and five elsewhere in the state, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday, citing state and county health departments.