By Whitney Ross
wross@marion.gannett.com
Hepatitis facts
– Free clinic: Because of the risk to the public, a free clinic will be set up within the next few days with immune globulin, an immunization that provides temporary immunity from the disease and may prevent illness in people who have been exposed to it in the last 14 days.
– Incubation period: People with Hepatitis A are most contagious from about one week before symptoms begin until two weeks after. Most start to have symptoms about one month after exposure. Some have no symptoms, but sill spread the virus.
– Symptoms: Tiredness, stomach pain, fever, loss of appetite, yellowing of skin and eyeballs (jaundice) and nausea, dark urine or pale-colored stool
– Who is at risk: People who live with or have sex with an infected person, children and staff of child care centers where a child or employee has Hepatitis A, residents and staff or centers for disabled children when a child or employee has Hepatitis A, travelers to countries where Hepatitis A is common and where there is little clean water or proper sewage disposal.
– Is there a cure? No. There is no medicine for Hepatitis A once you have it. Immune globulin can be taken within two weeks after exposure to prevent or lessen symptoms.
– How it can be prevented: Washing hands after using the bathroom, cleaning the toilet, changing or handling soiled towels or linens, fixing food or eating.
– What to do? If exposed to Hepatitis A, ask a doctor about immune globulin. If traveling to areas where Hepatitis A is common, get immune globulin or vaccination before travel, drink bottled beverages and do not eat uncooked fruits or vegetables, unless you peel them yourself.
– Source: Indiana State Department of Health
If you have eaten at the Wendy’s Old-Fashioned Hamburgers in South Marion within the past two weeks, you could be at risk for Hepatitis A, the Indiana State Department of Health said Tuesday.

The health department confirmed that an employee at the hamburger chain at 1410 S. Western Ave. had contracted the disease, which can be transmitted by a person not washing their hands after using the restroom, touching dirty diapers or linens that have been soiled by stool.
Specifically, a person contracts the disease by ingesting fecal material from an infected person, according to the health department.
“People who ate at this Wendy’s restaurant from July 13 through July 27 may be at risk of developing Hepatitis A and should receive a dose of immune globulin (also called gamma globulin),” health officials said.
Immune globulin is an immunization that provides temporary immunity from the disease and may prevent symptoms in people exposed to Hepatitis A within in the past 14 days.
A free clinic will be set up within the next few days to provide the shot. Dates will be published as they are set.
People who ate at the restaurant before July 14 also may be exposed but should not get the shot because it is not effective past 14 days, the health department said.
Health officials did not say how the employee had contracted the disease.
Gary Boyer, director of operations for the locally owned fast-food chain, said the company also does not have specifics on how the employee contracted the disease. However, the person had worked at the Wendy’s for more than a year and is very sick and has been hospitalized.
“(The employee) typically works a register position. (They’re) not really a food handler,” Boyer said, adding that before employees begin working, they are trained on the importance of hand-washing and that this employee had been trained as required.
Dr. Neela Bakane, a family practice doctor in Marion, said people probably would not be infected just by passing money at the restaurant.
“I think that’s unlikely,” she said. “It’s usually through food. You would have to put something contaminated in your mouth,” she said.
The hepatitis scare has left some patrons worried about eating at the restaurant, although others believe this is a case that could have happened anywhere.
“It makes me not want to eat here now,” said Kristi Fields, 24, Gas City.
Arthur Boucher, 76, Marion, was grabbing a burger, fries and frosty from the restaurant Tuesday evening.
“It don’t make me feel good, (but) it’s all over,” he said of the news, adding that things like this could happen at any other restaurant, but believes a better process should be put in place to screen people to ensure they are following the rules.
Boyer said the remaining employees of the south location will be tested and receive the immune globulin shots.
“Everybody needs to take it seriously,” he said. “In terms of hepatitis, we don’t wish that on anybody.”