CAMPBELL COUNTY, TX (April 19, 2005) — The Regional Health Department confirmed that a foodservice worker who worked at the Waffle House restaurant located at off Highway 61 in Clinton tested positive for hepatitis A. People who ate at the restaurant between April 1 and April 15, during the time when the worker was infectious, are now at risk for developing hepatitis A infection. The infected Waffle House worker is suspected to be the victim of a larger outbreak of hepatitis A that is believed to have caused at least 17 acute hepatitis A infections. Health officials have traced the outbreak to a restaurant in LaFollette.
The Regional Health Department organized a clinic to inoculate patrons of the restaurant who ate there between April 5 and April 15. The average incubation period for hepatitis A infection is thirty days, but can be as long as fifty days. A person who is infected with hepatitis A is infectious for the two weeks pervious to symptom onset and for two weeks thereafter. Immune globulin shots prevent hepatitis A infection, but only if administered during the two weeks following exposure to the virus.
“It seems that a month hardly passes without a warning from a health department somewhere that an infected food handler is the source of a potential hepatitis A outbreak,” said attorney William Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark, the Seattle law firm dedicated to representing victims of foodborne illness outbreaks.

Marler Clark recently settled class action lawsuits filed against a Chi-Chi’s restaurant near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where 10,000 people who were forced to receive Immune globulin shots after being exposed to hepatitis A, and a Friendly’s restaurant near Boston, where nearly 3,000 people who were forced to receive the shots after being exposed to the virus.
“Until restaurant workers are vaccinated against hepatitis A, and restaurant owners and managers enforce effective and rigorous hand washing policies, there will be more hepatitis A outbreaks, more people lining up to receive Immune globulin shots, and more lawsuits,” Marler continued. “The restaurant industry should act now, and require vaccination of its employees. It’s a public health issue.”
The firm has also represented hundreds of victims of hepatitis A outbreaks who contracted the disease after being exposed during large, well-publicized hepatitis A outbreaks. These include outbreaks linked to green onions served at a Chi-Chi’s restaurant in Pennsylvania in 2003, and outbreaks linked to infected food workers at two Seattle Subway franchises, a Carl’s Jr. restaurant in Spokane, Washington, three restaurants in Northwest Arkansas, a large wedding party in Michigan, and a large outbreak caused by a deli, D’Angelo’s, in Massachusetts.
Marler Clark (www.marlerclark.com) has extensive experience representing victims of foodborne illnesses. William Marler speaks frequently on issues of safe food. The Marler Clark law firm is also proud to sponsor several information-sites, including www.about-hepatitis.com, www.hepatitisblog.com, and www.foodborneillness.com.