DC health officials issue raw oyster warning
10/12/2005
WASHINGTON Raw oyster fans beware: Washington D-C's health department is warning residents about Gulf Coast oysters contaminated with Hepatitis-A.
Officials say twenty-nine people in Alabama, Florida and Tennessee have contracted the illness within a month of eating raw oysters from the same Louisiana shellfish dealer.
Investigators think the shellfish growing area was contaminated by discharge from a boat. The Alabama shellfish dealer that sold the infected oysters has issued a recall.
But city health officials say the contaminated oysters aren't a danger anymore because their consumption date is long past.
They say more shellfish from the infected bed won't reach the market either, since Hurricane Katrina has closed all of Louisiana's shellfish growing areas.
