Ken Morgan
May 20, 2005
Hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver, affects many Americans. There are more than 100 causes of hepatitis and the most common one in the United States is alcohol. If hepatitis is caused by a virus it is given a letter, like hepatitis A, B or C. Hepatitis A and B are preventable with a vaccine.
We still see more than 200,000 cases of hepatitis A and more than 300,000 cases of hepatitis B every year. There is no vaccine for hepatitis C. HCV infects more than 650,000 in California and more than 5 million in the United States.Continue Reading Focus of event will be hepatitis

By Ben Chapman
May 17, 2005, 00:05
Commentary from the Food Safety Network
This is usually my favourite time of year — springtime brings the NHL playoffs.
Normally it’s non-stop hockey on television, in the news and on my mind. Though the World Championships have just ended in Austria, it just was not the same. I sat this one out and I wasn’t the only one. Patrick Elias of the gold medal-winning Czech Republic and the New Jersey Devils, yearly foe of my beloved Toronto Maple Leafs, was also on the shelf.
But Elias didn’t miss the Championships as a result of indifference towards international hockey. Elias didn’t play because he’s been battling a hepatitis A infection that he’s had since March. The Czech winger spent four weeks in the hospital, lost about 30 pounds, missed the remainder of the Russian hockey season (where he had been playing to pass the time) and finally the World Championships. All this due to what his agent described as bad seafood in a Russian airport. Elias is one of an increasing number of people to fall victim to this sneaky virus.Continue Reading Hockey takes a shot from Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A is a nationally reportable condition, and the surveillance case definition* includes both clinical criteria and serologic confirmation (1). State health departments and CDC have investigated persons with positive serologic tests for acute hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection (i.e., IgM anti-HAV) whose illness was not consistent with the clinical criteria of the hepatitis A case definition. Test results indicating acute HAV infection among persons who do not have clinical or epidemiologic features consistent with hepatitis A are a concern for state and local health departments because of the need to assess whether contacts need postexposure immunoprophylaxis.
This report summarizes results of three such investigations, which suggested that most of the positive tests did not represent recent acute HAV infections. To improve the predictive value of a positive IgM anti-HAV test, clinicians should limit laboratory testing for acute HAV infection to persons with clinical findings typical of hepatitis A or to persons who have been exposed to settings where HAV transmission is suspected.Continue Reading Positive Test Results for Acute Hepatitis A Virus Infection Among Persons With No Recent History of Acute Hepatitis — United States, 2002–2004

New rules target green onions, are tougher than in U.S.
By Diane Lindquist
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 15, 2005
MEXICALI — After the deadly hepatitis A outbreak linked to Baja California green onions a year and a half ago, Mexico has imposed an unprecedented food safety program that far exceeds practices in the United States.
“If you’re going to grow onions in Baja California, you’re going to do it right,” said Baja California Agriculture Secretary Juan Pablo Hern*ndez.
The program, which started in spring, requires Baja California growers and packers who export green onions to the United States to be certified as having good food safety practices. Among the new rules that solely target Baja California green onions are state inspections of living and working conditions in the state’s fields and packaging sheds.
It’s Mexico’s first mandatory food safety certification program.
In the United States, the federal government’s guidelines for all crops are voluntary and do not require inspections.Continue Reading Mexico tests recipe for food safety

Fri May 13, 2005
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Routinely testing people for hepatitis A virus (HAV) — when they don’t have clinical symptoms of infection or a history of exposure — raises the likelihood of false-positive results, investigators report.
Hepatitis A is most often caught when sanitation is poor, or when carriers are not careful about personal hygiene. A false-positive test result may mean that a person’s contacts undergo unnecessary treatment to prevent infection.
Dr. Z. F. Dembek, at the Connecticut Department of Public Health, and colleagues investigated cases that tested positive for HAV in Connecticut and Alaska. They report their findings in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Connecticut, 127 positive test results were reported between 2002 and 2003, but only 108 of the patients had illness consistent with acute hepatitis A. Of the remaining 19 considered to be false-positives, 9 had no symptoms of any illness and 10 had clinical signs that were not consistent with hepatitis A.Continue Reading Hepatitis A test often misleading

Health Department Says Restaurant Patrons Not At Risk
May 11, 2005
SALEM, N.H. — State public health officials said Wednesday that a food service worker in Salem was diagnosed with hepatitis A, but they said there is no concern that customers have been infected.
Public Health Director MaryAnn Cooney said the department’s investigation shows no substantial risk to customers because of the timing of the worker’s illness and precautions he took while preparing or handling food. The state is not releasing the name of the business.
The person is in the hospital and doing well. His family members and others close to him are being treated.Continue Reading Salem Restaurant Worker Diagnosed With Hepatitis A

05/11/2005
Beaver County Times
When the North American Free Trade Agreement was being debated in the United States, some supporters played down demands by American labor groups and others that it include provisions relating to health, safety, labor, the environment and other areas.
NAFTA backers said it would infringe on Mexico’s sovereignty to impose restrictions in these areas.
We thought of the decade-old debate following a report by the federal Food and Drug Administration that workers at one of four Mexican green onion farms inspected as a result of the 2003 hepatitis A outbreak at the Chi-Chi’s restaurant at the Beaver Valley Mall lived in windowless metal shacks with no showers.Continue Reading Lesson learned

05/07/2005
Joe Mandak, Associated Press Writer
PITTSBURGH – The Food and Drug Administration says workers at one of four Mexican green onion farms inspected as a result of a 2003 hepatitis outbreak lived in windowless metal shacks with no showers.
Shallow trenches ran from an area littered with soiled diapers and other human waste, downhill to onion fields and a packaging house, recently released documents show.
The FDA has stopped short of conclusively linking any one problem at the farms to the outbreak, which sickened at least 650 people and killed four who ate at the Chi-Chi’s restaurant at the Beaver Valley Mall in Center Township.Continue Reading Conditions filthy at farm linked to hepatitis outbreak