April 26, 2005
CLINTON (AP) – Health department officials have not found the source of a hepatitis A outbreak in Campbell County even after interviewing nearly 100 people over the weekend, they said Monday.
The health department opened an emergency clinic last week, and more than 1,500 people were vaccinated, department spokeswoman Carole Martin said Monday.
Local, regional and state health officials interviewed 98 people, including those with and without the disease, about their habits of socializing, shopping, eating out and drug use to determine the cause, said Dr. Paul Erwin, regional director of the East Tennessee state health department office.

Continue Reading Source of hepatitis A outbreak in Campbell County still unknown

Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Reported by: Kathryn Barrett
A worker at a Norfolk restaurant has Hepatitis A and health officials want to find patrons who might have been exposed.
Health officials said the alert affects some customers of Alice Mae’s Soul Food Restaurant at 112 Bank Street. You have to have eaten cornbread or iced, cold beverages on April 15, 16 17 and 18th between the hours of 5:00 p.m. and closing.
The Norfolk Health Department is ready to answer questions if you ate at the downtown restaurant on those dates and times and ate those specific foods.

Continue Reading Worker at downtown Norfolk restaurant has Hepatitis A

APRIL 26, 2005
STOCKTON — Nearly 1,200 High School and Elementary School students are being urged to get Immune Globulin shots to prevent the spread of hepatitis A after being exposed to a hepatitis A positive cafeteria worker. “It seems that a month hardly passes without a warning from a health department somewhere that an infected food handler is the source of a potential hepatitis A outbreak,” said attorney William Marler, managing partner of the Seattle law firm of Marler Clark. “Absent vaccinations of food handlers, combined with an effective and rigorous hand washing policy, there will be more hepatitis A outbreaks. It is time for health departments to require vaccinations of food handlers, especially those that serve the very young and the elderly” added Marler.

Continue Reading Attorney Again Calls for Mandatory Hepatitis A Vaccinations for all

Health officials say risk of contracting illness is low
By Yasmin Assemi
Record Staff Writer
Published Tuesday, April 26, 2005
STOCKTON — About 1,200 students at Franklin High, Kohl Open, Fillmore Elementary and Urbani Institute have been exposed to Hepatitis A after a cafeteria worker was diagnosed with the disease Thursday.
Students who ate cafeteria lunches at those schools between April 13 and 15 were exposed to the illness, but San Joaquin County Public Health Services and Stockton Unified School District officials say that risk is low.
“After looking at the whole situation, it looks like the risk … is very low,” health Officer Karen Furst said. “But there is never zero risk.”
Stockton Unified on Friday sent home letters to parents of students at each school, district spokeswoman Dianne Barth said. More than half of the elementary school students exposed are already immunized against the illness.

Continue Reading About 1,200 students exposed to Hepatitis A

Health study finds no current risk to public of ongoing infection
By KRISTI L. NELSON, nelsonk@knews.com
April 26, 2005
No single event, restaurant or other place was the source of a hepatitis A outbreak that has infected 18 people so far, the East Tennessee Regional Health Department announced Monday.
That was the result of a study conducted by local, regional and state health department staff over the weekend to try to determine the source of the Campbell County outbreak.
“More importantly, our work this weekend also did not identify any current risk to the public in terms of an ongoing source of hepatitis A,” said Dr. Paul Erwin, regional director of ETRHO.

Continue Reading No single restaurant, event source of hepatitis A outbreak

April 25, 2005
KNOXVILLE (WATE) — The East Tennessee Regional Health Department says Monday that its investigation of the recent hepatitis A outbreak wasn’t able to identify a restaurant as the likely source.
Health officials say over the past weekend they conducted 98 interviews that included people with the virus, food service workers and people chosen at random who weren’t sick.
The interviewers asked questions about travel, group functions with food, schools, daycares, healthcare exposures, sharing food, drug use and eating out.

Continue Reading Restaurant not source of hepatitis A outbreak

4/25/2005
The 18th case of hepatitis A has been confirmed in East Tennessee.
The outbreak began in Campbell County earlier this month. The cases are spread between Campbell, Anderson and Scott counties.
The outbreak has been traced to a Waffle House restaurant in Clinton, and at least 12-hundred people who ate there received vaccinations last week against the viral liver illness.
Officials estimate that five-thousand people dined at the restaurant during a susceptible time. A worker there tested positive for the virus.
Hepatitis A symptoms include mild fever, loss of appetite, nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, dark urine and jaundice. It can be spread by poor hygiene and being in contact with someone who has the disease.
Most victims survive.

By William Marler
April 18, 2005
Health officials in Campbell County are working hard to trace the source of a hepatitis A outbreak that has caused eleven confirmed and four suspected cases of in the County. Health officials appear now to be focusing on potentially infected restaurant workers as the source of the outbreak. Knoxville-area restaurants have understandably seen business plummet due to the public’s uncertainty about how the hepatitis A virus is being spread.

Continue Reading Restaurant industry should require Hepatitis A vaccinations for all foodservice workers