BY JONATHAN ATHENS
Jun 10, 2005
Yuma County Health Department workers put their money where their mouths are — literally.
After a 10-hour day giving shots to thousands of people in order to head-off a possible hepatitis A outbreak, hungry public-health workers chowed down on some tasty Mexican fare from the popular Yuma restaurant connected to the potential threat.

On Wednesday — the first day of the shot clinic — Yuma County Health Department workers dined on burritos and rolled tacos ordered from Chile Pepper, the popular area restaurant where one food handler was recently diagnosed with hepatitis A.
Acting Public Health District Director Becky Brooks said staffers opted for Chile Pepper’s fare because they like the food and they wanted to show their support for the Gutierrez family, which owns the restaurant and two others in the community.
“We know this wasn’t any fault of theirs,” Brooks said Thursday.
Public health officials made that clear earlier this week when they announced the confirmed hepatitis case, saying the stricken employee did not contract the illness at the restaurant but at another, undetermined location.
They also have said repeatedly the restaurant has a clean record and remains a safe place to eat.
“That just reassures me people have faith in us and in our food,” said John Gutierrez, whose family owns Chile Pepper, Mr. G’s, and Casa Gutierrez.
Gutierrez said he was both surprised and heartened when health department workers running the clinic ordered two dozen burritos and five dozen rolled tacos.
Business at Chile Pepper, 1030 W. 24 St., has been down considerably since the news of the hepatitis case broke, but customers are slowly coming back, Gutierrez said.
“I expect the weekend to be slow, but I think it will pick up,” he said, adding: “I have a lot of faith in our customers.”
Gutierrez said several customers recently reassured him they will continue to dine at Chile Pepper.
Crowds on day two of the shot clinic, held at the Yuma Civic and Convention Center, leveled out but remained steady throughout the day.
As of 3:50 p.m., nurses had administered a total of more than 3,800 shots, said Kevin Tunell, Yuma County public and legislative affairs director.
The clinic was down to about 50 doses of gamma globulin at closing time Wednesday, but the health department received 3,000 additional vials on Thursday morning. Another 2,000 vials are on order, Tunell said.
Gamma globulin shots help to boost the immune system, and must be administered within two weeks of possible exposure to the hepatitis A virus.
Health department officials have estimated that between 6,000 and 8,000 people may have been exposed to the virus.
In the meantime, there have been no additional confirmed cases of hepatitis A in the county.
The illness, which is rarely fatal, is transmitted when someone ingests food contaminated with the stool of another person who has hepatitis A, health department officials have said. The infection cannot be spread by person-to-person contact and its severity ranges from mild to moderate, officials have said.
News of the potential public health threat here has extended as far as Las Vegas, where public health officials said Thursday they had provided booster shots and vaccines to four persons, all of whom dined at Chile Pepper between May 25 and June 2, the period when the infected employee was working at the restaurant.
“I don’t expect there to be a huge outpouring of calls, but I just can’t say,” said Clark County Health District Epidemiologist Susan Verchick.
Verchick said two others who dined at the restaurant are slated to get shots.
Las Vegas resident Suzanne Tornell, 51, said she and her son, Stephen Bolde, 32, were ready to make the long trek to Yuma to get shots because at first they could not find a provider in their area.
Tornell said she and her son only had soda pop at Chile Pepper when they were in Yuma on May 27 for her niece’s graduation.
Tornell said she paid $90 to get a booster shot and vaccine in Las Vegas, making the beverage she consumed at Chile Pepper “an expensive Diet Coke.”
Nevertheless, Tornell said she will return to the restaurant.
“I’ll still go,” she said.
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Jonathan Athens can be reached at 539-6857 or jathens@yumasun.com.