4 new cases; it’s unclear how some became ill
By Barbara Isaacs
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
Health department investigators yesterday tracked four new cases of hepatitis A, expanding a Fayette County outbreak that has now sickened 14 people.
Disease investigators, called epidemiologists, were still trying to determine how some of the victims became ill.
Some of those connections between victims are obvious. The first reported cases were among an extended family in two households. The family’s toddler was exposed to hepatitis A while traveling outside the United States. The family’s kindergartner, who attends Mary Todd Elementary, passed it to two classmates. Then a neighbor of the family got the disease.Continue Reading 14 in Fayette now have hepatitis A

By Barbara Isaacs
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
Three more cases of hepatitis A have been reported to the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department, raising the total number of cases to 13 since February.
All three new cases are adults — two women and one man. Only one of them has an obvious connection to people who had previously been diagnosed with the illness.
“The other two, strangely enough, do not have any commonality with any of the existing cases that we know of,” said Jim Wilkins, a spokesman for the health department.Continue Reading Three new hepatitis cases reported

March 30, 2006
Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Barbara Isaacs
A fourth kindergarten student at Lexington’s Mary Todd Elementary has been diagnosed with hepatitis A, health department officials reported yesterday.
Earlier this week, a child in Early Start at Yates Elementary also was diagnosed with the disease. That child was in a class of 15 children, ages 3 to 4.
Yesterday’s new diagnosis at Mary Todd means that 10 cases of hepatitis A have been reported in Fayette County since early February — three adults and seven children.Continue Reading Hepatitis diagnosed in fourth student

March 27, 2006
The Produce News
Joan Murphy
Los Angeles County health officials implicated lettuce in a hepatitis A outbreak on a movie set late last year, and now the law firm Marler Clark has filed lawsuits against a caterer and a lettuce distributor on behalf of sickened film crew members.
Workers on the set of “The Good German,” a film starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett, filed a lawsuit against Silver Grill Location Catering and Soleil Produce Inc., said the Seattle-based law firm. According to the suit, Soleil Produce supplied the pre-packaged baby greens on the California film set.
“Contaminated lettuce has been the source of a number of foodborne illness outbreaks over the last five years,” said R. Drew Falkenstein, an associate at Marler Clark. “The foodservice industry is aware of the risks associated with fresh produce and needs to do more to protect its consumers.”Continue Reading California film workers file suit in hepatitis A case

Thu, Mar. 30, 2006
Kentucky-A shot clinic is scheduled at Yates Elementary from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. today. Students, faculty and school aides who work with the afternoon Early Start class at Yates will receive immune globulin and hepatitis A vaccine at no cost.
Hepatitis A vaccines are available to others, such as family members of the Early Start afternoon class — but there is a $25 charge for a child and $45 for an adult. For people who have symptoms of hepatitis A, a health department nurse can draw blood, at no charge, to confirm whether the virus is present.Continue Reading SCHOOL SHOT CLINIC

3/28/2006
By: Emily E. Sickbert-Bennett, UNC Health Care
Long before your mother taught you the importance of washing your hands as she lifted you up to reach the sink so you could wash before dinner, the effectiveness of hand washing was first recognized and described by a Hungarian physician, Ignaz Semmelweis, in 1846. Hand washing remains a timeless and effective intervention for preventing the spread of infections.
Hands can pick up disease-causing bacteria and viruses from contaminated environments or from an ill person or animal. Most microorganisms (e.g., bacteria and viruses) can survive on the hands for several minutes to hours. If you touch your mouth, nose or eyes with contaminated hands, these organisms can enter your body and cause infections. In addition, when you touch objects with your contaminated hands, you can spread the microorganisms to other objects that you touch.Continue Reading Hand washing is simple, effective means of preventing illness

March 28, 2006
Knight-Ridder Tribune
Barbara Isaacs, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.
A case of hepatitis A has been reported in a child in the morning session of Early Start at Yates Elementary School in Lexington.
The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department, which is investigating the case, said yesterday that there is no known connection between this case and three cases of hepatitis A confirmed at Mary Todd Elementary School last week.
The health department is recommending that children who have been in morning Early Start class at Yates during the past two weeks, and school staff who are in regular contact with them, get immune globulin shots and hepatitis A vaccinations. The shots will be given today at Yates from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.Continue Reading Hepatitis appears in second school: Yates Elementary case is apparently not linked to other 3

March 28, 2006
Another Lexington elementary school student has been diagnosed with hepatitis A.
The student attends Yates Elementary, but health officials say they don’t think this case has any relationship to three cases of the disease at another Lexington school.
Two kindergarten students and a second grade student at Mary Todd Elementary school tested positive for hepatitis A last week. Health officials say the Mary Todd cases originated from an out of state source.Continue Reading Another Elementary Student Contracts Hepatitis A