Saturday, October 29, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The mother of a Beaver County boy who contracted hepatitis A from a friend who ate at a Chi-Chi’s restaurant in the Beaver Valley Mall two years ago, has filed a lawsuit against the restaurant claiming negligence.
In it, Jana Brooks, claims her son, Jesse Dilts, of Hookstown, became…

By DIANE CHUN
Sun medical writer
October 28. 2005
According to Alachua County’s health director Tom Belcuore, the three students are from Orlando, but given the time frame in which they became ill, they probably contracted hepatitis on the UF campus.
“They all have spent time at UF, and over the past 10 days, we have been looking into additional connections,” Belcuore said Thursday.
Hepatitis A is most commonly spread by close personal contact, including sex or sharing a household item. The incubation period after exposure ranges from 15 to 50 days.Continue Reading County, UF investigate 3 cases of hepatitis A

10/26/2005
ATLANTA – All children between 1 and 2 should be vaccinated against the hepatitis A virus, a national vaccine panel recommended yesterday.
About 25 percent of hepatitis A cases occur in children, but many adults get the disease from infected youngsters, health officials said. The virus, which attacks the liver and can cause fever,…

Janet Fletcher
10/26/05
If you believe you have been sickened by a restaurant meal, health authorities advise alerting the establishment and calling the health department of the county where the restaurant is located; see accompaying phone numbers.
Most common illnesses: Salmonella, staphylococcus, campylobacter, E. coli 0157:H7
General symptoms: Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea; sometimes headache, muscle cramps and abdominal cramps. Staph symptoms come on rapidly, but generally the time elapsed between ingestion and illness is 24 to 72 hours.Continue Reading What To Do If You Think You Have Food Poisoning

San Fransisco Chronicle
By Jane Fletcher
10/26/05
You slurped the oysters, devoured the pork chop and ate every crumb of the apple pie — yet another fine dinner at a favorite restaurant. But at 3 a.m., you awake in a sweat, your insides churning and one thought on your mind: “That [expletive] restaurant made me sick.”
Not so fast. You’re sick all right. But was it the oysters? Or that succulent pork chop? Can you even be sure the culprit was part of your meal?
“It’s like someone telling you they got a cold from riding the 22 Fillmore,” says Carlo Middione, chef-owner of Vivande in San Francisco. Most diners in gastric distress instinctively blame the last place they ate, but it’s not necessarily that simple.Continue Reading Was It Something I Ate?

By Paula J. McGarvey for The Montana Standard – 10/18/2005
It might lack the Hollywood stars, high tech equipment and nail biting suspense of the popular television series CSI, but the Butte Silver Bow Health Department does its share of solving mysteries with the goal of stopping the spread of disease in Southwest Montana.
“Our purpose at the health department is to prevent the spread of disease from one person to the next by rapidly identifying those diseases and preventing the spread of infection to other people,” said Terri Hocking, a registered nurse and director of public health nursing services at the Butte Silver Bow Health Department.Continue Reading Local health sleuths investigate contagious disease

October 21, 2005
The New Milford Health Department has issued a reminder to local residents about the importance of keeping your hands clean.
The reminder comes on the heels of Clean Hands Week, which was Sept. 18-24.
Officials said that handwashing is the single most important thing one can do to prevent illness and the…

By The Associated Press
October 12, 2005
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.- All school-aged children in Campbell County public schools will receive the hepatitis-A vaccine after several residents contracted the virus over the spring and summer, health officials said.
An additional 2,000 adult doses of the vaccine will be available on a first-come, first-served basis at the Campbell…