Local News
BY JONATHAN ATHENS, STAFF WRITER
Jun 8, 2005
County health officials on Tuesday said they are mobilizing to halt a possible outbreak of hepatitis A as a result of a food handler at a popular Yuma restaurant recently being diagnosed with the illness.
Officials said they will hold clinics the remainder of this week and throughout next week to administer immunity booster shots to those who may have been exposed to the infection — an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 people.
Health department officials said anyone who ate or drank at Chile Pepper, 1030 W. 24th St., between May 25 and June 2 may have been exposed.

In an effort to allay public fears, officials said they cannot take any chances even though the possibility thousands of people may have been exposed is remote.
“This is all preventative. The likelihood of exposure is very minimal, but we can’t take that chance,” said Deborah McIntosh, health department director of nursing.
A liver disease, hepatitis A “can occur in situations ranging from isolated cases of disease to widespread epidemics,” according to the Centers for Disease Control’s Web site.
The virus is passed in the stools of an infected person. It is transmitted by contaminated food or water or from person to person by putting something in the mouth that has been contaminated with the stool of a person with hepatitis A.
The infection can cause “fever, tiredness, loss of appetite, nausea, abdominal discomfort, dark urine, and jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes). Symptoms usually last less than two months; a few persons are ill for as long as six months. The average incubation period for Hepatitis A is 28 days,” according to the CDC.
County officials stated in a news release the disease is “rarely fatal and is usually of mild to moderate severity.”
Authorities repeatedly made it clear the infection did not originate at the restaurant, which serves between 1,200 and 2,000 people each day. Health department officials said they conducted an in-depth inspection of the restaurant and said the restaurant has no history of violations. They also said the restaurant remains a safe place to dine.
More than two dozen people were dining at the restaurant mid-afternoon on Tuesday while health department workers in the adjacent business office of the restaurant gave shots to restaurant employees.
John Gutierrez, whose family owns the restaurant and two others in the community, said he does not think the incident will hurt the business.
“I think the Yuma people, the community knows our family. They know our quality of food,” Gutierrez said.
County Administrator David Garcia said the county became aware of the situation when the hospital on Monday notified them that a female restaurant employee had taken ill and tested positive for the infection.
Health department officials said they are uncertain where the employee contracted the illness but said she did not contract it at the restaurant.
Health department officials said the preventative treatment they will provide are gamma globulin shots which boost the body’s immune system in the event a person was exposed.
The shots are for adults and children ages six months and up.
McIntosh said children under six months who have already had their standard vaccinations are protected against hepatitis A.