A manager at a Katy ice cream shop has tested positive for hepatitis A, marking the second time this year an employee at a Houston-area food service business has been infected with the disease.

Marble Slab Creamery was locked Friday and a bright orange sign on the door warned that customers who have eaten products from the 23270 Westheimer Parkway store between Feb. 1 and Feb. 25 may have been exposed.

•Report suspected cases to the Fort Bend County health office at 281-342-6414 or by fax at 281-342-7371.

• Symptoms: Extreme fatigue, fever, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain or diarrhea, light-colored stool, dark or rust-colored urine, jaundice

• Treatment: Antibody shots to prevent the virus from causing a liver disease. Shots are only effective for two weeks after infection.

Source: Fort Bend County Health and Human Services Department

Health officials have no estimate yet on the number of people who ate at the shop, Kaye Reynolds, deputy director of the Fort Bend County Health and Human Services Department, said Friday.

"Our environmental department is working on that," Reynolds said. "But you know Marble Slab, they are busy."

Employees could be seen through the glass windows beginning the mandatory decontamination process of the store Friday night. Five workers were dumping tubs of ice cream, jars of candy and anything else that may have been contaminated. They were also taking apart equipment and dispensers to sterilize.

Hepatitis A is a liver disease caused by a virus. It is passed when an infected person does not properly wash his hands after using the restroom and handles food products that are served to customers.

People exposed to hepatitis A can be treated with antibodies, but they must receive shots no later than two weeks after exposure.

"Most people are just going to be given symptomatic treatment and they will recover by themselves within a few weeks without any long-term effects," Reynolds said.

"The problem is that they will be infectious to other people during that time," she said.

Reynolds said no other cases have been reported.

Robert W. D’Loren, president and chief executive officer of parent company NexCen Brands, said no other Marble Slab stores have been affected, and no other staff members have reported any symptoms.

"We will be medically testing the staff of this store in the coming days to determine if anyone else was infected," D’Loren said. He added that the store will not reopen until it is determined there is no further contamination risk.

David Wahome, of the Fort Bend County Health and Human Services Department, said health officials are concerned there may be unrecognized cases of hepatitis A in the community that could be associated with the exposure.

Mixed reactions

Located within a half a mile of a junior high and a high school, the store drew a steady stream of passers-by Friday evening.

Katy resident Frank Sorgie, a customer as recently as Sunday, said he was alarmed when he read the warning on the door because members of his family might be at risk for contracting the disease.

"My concern is making sure no one else in my family has hepatitis," Sorgie said, "because they ate here, too."

But John Nicholson, who works in the SuperTarget a few doors down, said he wasn’t concerned about the shop’s abrupt closure. He ate at the shop Thursday night.

"It was fine and I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary," he said. "Everything looked clean. If I would have caught something, I would have been throwing up by now."

Last month, more than 2,000 people received free antibody shots to treat hepatitis A after learning an employee at a north Harris County Pappasito’s Cantina was infected with the disease.

Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services issued a health advisory for any customers who had eaten at the restaurant since late January.