by By Jordan Schrader, JSCHRADE@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM
September 15, 2006
SAMS GAP- The one-story house at the center of a hepatitis A investigation spanning six states sits on U.S. 23 North, just before North Carolina gives way to Tennessee at Sams Gap.
Statement from a Madison County property owner. At least four cases of hepatitis A were found among guests who visited the property this summer. (26 KB)
A greenhouse, no taller and only slightly longer than the motor home parked nearby, indicates a modest garden rather than a farm.
Though the residents said they grew vegetables for themselves and friends, Madison County health officials called the property a farm and refused to identify its exact location in disclosing the liver disease.
That led the unnamed owner to issue a statement apologizing to any county farmers who might lose customers afraid of eating their produce.
The contamination transmitted through spring water sickened him, his girlfriend and their friends, he said – not the public.
Acting health director Jan Lounsbury and other officials held a news conference Wednesday about the outbreak in late July and early August, something Lounsbury said Thursday she felt pressured to do.
"There is no reason for the residents of Madison County to be in a panic or concerned about this at this time," she said.
Neighbors should not be worried their groundwater is similarly contaminated, she said.
Four county residents in total were confirmed to have hepatitis A. Ten more cases are under investigation in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, Washington and Oregon.
People who worked at or visited the property are suspected to have contracted it from drinking water, officials said.
No link has been found to Trevi Restaurant & Gourmet Market in Asheville. A Trevi employee diagnosed last month with hepatitis A has officials seeking links between the cases.
Officials on Wednesday burned the owner’s crops that the contaminated spring had watered, although the investigation turned up no evidence of transmission through produce.
The owner blamed the cases on a contaminated spring and said a new well would be dug within weeks.
The afflicted patients, Madison County farmers and health officials no doubt would agree with the owner’s sentiment in the handwritten statement he released to the public: "This has been an unfortunate event for everyone involved."