The Rock Island High School in Illinois is the recipient of a $25,000 donation from food safety law firm Marler Clark. The Seattle-based law firm works nationwide on behalf of victims of foodborne illness, and assisted many residents in the 2009 outbreak of Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) traced to a Milan McDonald’s.

“Foodborne illness outbreaks…

 The Salt Lake Valley Health Department (SLVHD) has announced that a case of hepatitis A in a food worker employed at a local restaurant has been confirmed and they are urging some patrons to receive a preventive inoculation.

Health department officials say that people who ate at Quiznos at 30 East Broadway (300 South) in…

Hepatitis A is the only common vaccine-preventable foodborne disease in the United States (Fiore, 2004). It is one of five human hepatitis viruses that primarily infect the human liver and cause human illness. Unlike hepatitis B and C, hepatitis A doesn’t develop into chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis, which are both potentially fatal conditions; however, infection…

The Marler Clark hepatitis A lawyers developed this site to keep our clients up-to-date on current litigation being prosecuted by Marler Clark throughout the United States. The site is also a resource for Marler Clark co-counsel in hepatitis A cases, print and broadcast media who are working on stories about hepatitis A outbreaks and outbreak-related…

The Hepatitis A Blog supplements Marler Clark’s Web site www.about-hepatitis.com, a site that provides information about hepatitis A, the symptoms and risks of infection, hepatitis A testing/detection, and how to prevent the spread of the hepatitis A virus.

While about-hepatitis.com is informational in purpose, the hepatitis A blog is intended to be a forum for discussion among the site’s authors and users. The authors of the hepatitis A blog conduct surveillance on matters related to hepatitis A’s impact on individuals and families in different cities, states, and regions.

Please join us in a conversation about hepatitis A that includes subjects such as outbreaks, recalls, and legal cases by commenting on posts that you find interesting

About hepatitis A (HAV)

Hepatitis A is the only common vaccine-preventable foodborne disease in the United States (Fiore, 2004). It is one of five human hepatitis viruses that primarily infect the human liver and cause human illness. Unlike hepatitis B and C, hepatitis A doesn’t develop into chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis, which are both potentially fatal conditions; however, infection with the hepatitis A virus (HAV) can still lead to acute liver failure and death.

Hepatitis A is much more common in countries with underdeveloped sanitation systems. This includes most of the world: an increased transmission rate is seen in all countries other than the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the countries of Western Europe. Nevertheless, it continues to occur in the United States; approximately one-third of the population has been previously infected with HAV (Fiore, 2004; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2009a). Each year, approximately 30,000 to 50,000 cases of hepatitis A occur in the United States. Although the national incidence (1.0 case per 100,000 population) of hepatitis A was the lowest ever recorded in 2007, it is estimated that 25,000 new infections occurred that year after asymptomatic infection and underreporting were taken into account.

In 2007, a total of 2,979 acute symptomatic cases of hepatitis A were reported (CDC, 2009b). Among the 1,047 cases with available information regarding foodborne or waterborne exposure, 6.5% were found to be foodborne or waterborne related, about one-third the proportion reported at the last peak in 2003. However, 2500 cases remained without known risk factors.

Estimates of the annual direct and indirect costs of hepatitis A in the United States have ranged from $300 million to $488.8 million in 1997 dollars (CDC, 2007). Nationwide, adults who become ill miss an average of 27 work days per illness and 11 to 22 percent of those infected are hospitalized (CDC, 2009c). These are avoidable illnesses, since 21st Century medicine and the advent of hepatitis A vaccine have rendered hepatitis A infections totally preventable.

How is Hepatitis A Infection Transmitted?Continue Reading About Hepatitis A – A Foodborne Illness

Washing your hands is one of the best ways to protect against this serious liver disease

Are you traveling to another country, such as Mexico, Africa, Central or South America, Asia (except Japan) or Eastern Europe? Do you have children in a daycare center, work directly with children or help ill adults? If you answered…

Outside of the Milan, IL McDonald’s, the one place where you really should not be unless you have a Hepatitis A vaccine is Imperial Beach, CA.

That’s because northbound ocean currents funnel the polluted water from the Tijuana River into the Imperial Beach surf.  To say that the Mexican waters are polluted is to put…