December 03, 2004
By NATALIA E. ARBUL?
narbulu@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD – A White Street Elementary School cafeteria worker was hospitalized Monday due to hepatitis A, and state and local officials said they have taken the steps necessary to keep the disease contained.
No other related cases have been reported, said Helen Caulton-Harris, director of the city’s Health and Human Services Department.
State health officials did not believe students or teachers at the school were at risk, she said.
Thomas Mazza, assistant finance manager for the Springfield School Department who oversees the lunch program, confirmed last night that the worker was admitted to an undisclosed hospital and that other employees who had come into contact with her were being treated with inoculations as a precaution.
Hepatitis A is a viral liver disease that spreads through unsanitary conditions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site.

Symptoms include jaundice, fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, fever and abdominal pain. There is normally no chronic infection, according to the CDC.
Caulton-Harris, who learned about the case from The Republican, listened to her voice mail at work and found that one of her public health nurses had left her a message briefing her on the case late in the afternoon.
Caulton-Harris said that according to the nurse, the state Department of Public Health decided to inoculate four co-workers and the worker’s family as a precaution.
“The Department of Public Health did not feel it was a crisis or an epidemic,” Caulton-Harris said.
Mazza said the school district’s nursing supervisor, Mary Zamorski, worked with the local Board of Health this week to take the necessary actions.
Zamorski could not be reached for comment last night.
School principal Geraldine Barrett said late last night that parents had not been notified of the case because it is being contained in the first circle of those exposed to the worker.
While it is unclear when the worker fell ill, Caulton-Harris said symptoms usually appear within one to three days.
The virus is usually found in the stools of infected people. It is spread by feces to hands and then to mouth. It also can be spread by contaminated food.