COVINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18)– The State Department for Public Health will hold a panel Friday morning to discuss the ongoing hepatitis A outbreak in the Commonwealth.
It’s happening just one week after the department dismissed one of it’s top managers.
The panel is part of the Kentucky Public Health Association’s annual conference.
It will include the cabinet secretary and public health commissioner, as well as the department’s infectious diseases staff minus the branch manager.
The Infectious Diseases Chief John Bennett was dismissed from the department last Friday, according to the Courier Journal.
He had only been in that position since last fall.
Bennett told the paper he was not given a specific reason for his dismissal, but he did say he had no information to suggest it was related to the state’s recently criticized response to the hepatitis A outbreak.
The outbreak has sickened more than 4,300 people across the Commonwealth and has killed 52 people as of last month.
The panel will begin at 9 a.m. at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington.
