BY LAURA WILLIAMS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
November 17, 2004
A swanky New Hyde Park restaurant was deemed fit for operation yesterday – despite a Health Department warning of possible hepatitis contamination.
After a kitchen worker at Villa Leone restaurant was diagnosed with hepatitis A, health officials said anyone who ate at the Union Turnpike eatery in October was at risk of contracting the disease.
“We’re still in the process of testing all employees,” Nassau County Health Department spokeswoman Cynthia Brown said.
None of the employees tested so far has the virus, she said.
But health inspectors found other violations at the Italian restaurant, Brown said, adding that she couldn’t say what they were because the investigation is continuing.

“They are in the process of being corrected, and the conditions are acceptable and the restaurant is being allowed to operate at this time,” she said.
That was cold comfort to owner John Leone, who opened the restaurant three years ago.
“The news just came out and we’re already seeing a decline in business,” said Leone, whose restaurant also hosts weddings and other private parties. “It was an isolated case. We have nothing to hide.
“We served more than 2,000 people over the last two months, and nobody got sick. This place is spotless.”
Some patrons were taking a wait-and-see attitude.
Melody Aas, a Villa Leone regular, said, “I’ll still go, but I’ll probably wait a while.”
Most hepatitis A patients recover in a few weeks. Symptoms of the virus – which multiplies in the body after it enters through the mouth – include fatigue, loss of appetite, fever and vomiting. Sufferers also may become jaundiced.
There is no medicine to treat it, but anyone with symptoms should see his or her doctor, health officials said.
Anyone who ate at Villa Leone last month should thoroughly wash his or her hands after using the toilet and before eating or preparing food, health officials said.