KENTUCKIANS MIGHT HAVE DINED AT TENNESSEE RESTAURANT
By Cassondra Kirby
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
April 22, 2005
State health officials are concerned that some Kentuckians could be among the more than 5,000 people exposed to hepatitis A while eating at a restaurant along Interstate 75 in Tennessee.
But health officials said time is running out for those who ate at the Waffle House near Clinton, Tenn., from April 5 to April 15 — when many schools were on spring break — and who may need an immune globulin shot. The shot helps ward off the viral liver disease that can cause serious illness and even death in rare cases.
To be effective, the shot must be administered within two weeks of a person’s exposure to the disease, said Carole Martin, spokeswoman for the East Tennessee Regional Health Office.
Kentuckians concerned that they might have been exposed should contact their physicians or an emergency room, health officials said.

At least one person has come forward with concerns in Lexington, after eating at the Waffle House off Exit 122 in Anderson County.
Jim Wilkins, spokesman for the Fayette County Health Department, said the person did not have any symptoms of hep-atitis A and was advised to see a physician if any arise.
After talking with the individual, he said, health department officials decided there was no need for the person to receive a shot.
As of Wednesday, 1,241 people of the estimated 5,000 and more who ate at the Waffle House had received the shot at a massive emergency clinic hastily set up at a National Guard Armory in Clinton.
Martin said no positive hep-atitis A cases have been reported among Waffle House patrons.
Martin said a waiter at the Waffle House was one of those who tested positive, and since hepatitis A is spread most commonly through food tainted with infected feces, there was cause for concern. For instance, if the waiter had used the toilet and not washed his or her hands properly and then touched the food, the disease could have been transmitted, Martin said.
Officials say the worker could have exposed Waffle House patrons from about April 1 until he or she stopped working April 15.
Martin said the Waffle House, a chain of 1,470 restaurants, is not the source of the hepatitis outbreak that has sickened 17 people in three Tennessee counties this month, but an unnamed restaurant in La- Follette, Tenn., 20 miles north of Clinton, is suspected.
Of the 17 people who tested positive, Martin said, several could be traced back to the same restaurant in LaFollette. The restaurant has not been named because none of its employees has tested positive for hepatitis A, and the investigation is still going on, she said.
Officials said an additional 2,000 customers who ate at the Waffle House April 1-4 could also have been exposed and are advised to look for symptoms. If infected, they would need treatment, since the time when the preventive medicine could help them is past.
“We know that most of the people who ate there are probably tourists from outside the state,” she said.
Martin said authorities are concerned that travelers have returned to their home states and might not get the warnings about preventive measures.
She said no one from Kentucky has called with exposure concerns, but the two health departments in Anderson County, Tenn., have fielded calls from such places as Florida and South Carolina from people who ate at the restaurant.
Several Kentucky health department directors said yesterday that they were not aware of the hepatitis outbreak in Tennessee and had not received any expressions of concern from residents.
Hepatitis A, which does not cause long-term liver damage like hepatitis B and C do, has had sporadic outbreaks across the country. In 2003, 660 people were sickened, including three who died because of an outbreak caused by green onions served at a Chi-Chi’s restaurant in Beaver County, Pa.
The outbreak in the Louis-ville-based restaurant chain remains the largest single-source hepatitis A outbreak in U.S. history.