“They say that time heals all wounds, but it will be a long time before this is healed. I’ll never really recover.” — Richard Miller
Sunday, November 07, 2004
By Christopher Snowbeck, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
On that fateful Sunday, it was a coupon that took Richard and Linda Miller to the Beaver Valley Mall Chi-Chi’s — a coupon that turned out to be invalid for the lunch they planned on sharing.
Not a regular at the restaurant, Linda Miller raised the possibility of going elsewhere to eat on Oct. 12, 2003, but Richard thought they might as well stay.
The Millers went on to become two of the 660 people sickened with hepatitis A in the largest outbreak of its kind in U.S. history. Four Chi-Chi’s patrons died from the disease and, short of those cases, Richard Miller’s sickness might have been the worst. Hepatitis A forced him to undergo a liver transplant, and the Beaver County man continues to struggle with a host of health problems to this day.
“They say that time heals all wounds, but it will be a long time before this is healed,” Miller, 58, said last week. “I’ll never really recover.”

Continue Reading Hepatitis still hurts

By MICHAEL DOYLE
McClatchy Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (SMW) – Dangerous food potentially stays on shelves too long because of ineffective recalls, a congressional watchdog agency warns.
Less than half of the recalled food studied was actually returned or destroyed, the Government Accountability Office noted in its new study. Moreover, federal officials can’t issue mandatory recall orders for food – a power other agencies have over dangerous toys or medical devices.
“Consumers may be vulnerable to serious illness, hospitalization, and even death, in part, because of weaknesses in (federal) programs for monitoring companies’ recalls of unsafe food,” the GAO said.
Even so, some of the proposed solutions might cause gagging among California’s politically attuned food processors. In particular, the GAO is urging Congress to grant the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration the authority to flat-out order food recalls.

Continue Reading GAO: Food recalls ineffective

JOE MANDAK
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH – One year ago, more than 600 people were sickened from hepatitis A-tainted green onions served at a Chi-Chi’s restaurant. Four of the victims died.
Since then, the Louisville, Ky.-based Chi-Chi’s chain has vanished and more than 300 legal claims have been settled for about $10 million.
Most important, the produce industry and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have taken steps to make the nation’s fresh fruit and vegetables safer. Industry officials and food safety experts say new voluntary guidelines have made the food supply safer than ever, but some consumer advocates say the public will be protected only if the rules become mandatory.

Continue Reading Hepatitis outbreak increased focus on safety of produce

Put me out of business, Please
By William Marler
Restaurant industry should require hepatitis A vaccinations for all foodservice workers
I applaud Utah County health officials for considering mandatory vaccination of foodservice workers. Every year, thousands of restaurant customers have to receive Immune globulin injections to prevent hepatitis A infection after eating at a restaurant where an infected food handler came in contact with food. They are forced to take time off work or out of school to stand in line at clinics held by public health officials and receive their injections. Those who were exposed, but were not notified within a two-week time period and were unable to receive a preventative shot, wait in anticipation while the fifty-day incubation period passes to find out whether they will become ill or not. And many do become ill.
According to the CDC, hepatitis A infected food handlers do cause outbreaks. Although the Chi Chi’s hepatitis A outbreak in Pennsylvania that sickened 650 and killed 5 last year appears to have been caused by contaminated onions, it could have just as easily been a hepatitis A positive employee in another case. This outbreak alone cost Chi Chi’s its business and will cost insurance companies millions.
I know this because I am a trial lawyer who has built a practice on food pathogens. Over the last ten years, I have represented thousands of families who were devastated after doing a very American pastime — eating at a restaurant.

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

County health official wants vaccinations to become mandatory
By Sharon Haddock
Deseret Morning News
PROVO — The head of Utah County’s health department thinks asking all restaurant employees to get Hepatitis A shots is a no-brainer. After all, an outbreak would deal a very harsh blow to any restaurant.
That’s why Dr. Joe Miner says the Utah County Board of Health should make vaccinations mandatory for workers in food establishments.
But the suggestion has left a bad taste in the mouths of Utah Valley restaurant owners, and at least one member of the county health board — the owner of two popular Utah Valley restaurants — isn’t convinced the county needs a vaccination policy for food-service workers.
“It doesn’t really get spread through restaurants at all,” said Craig Witham, the board member who owns the Los Hermanos restaurants in Provo and Lindon. “(Hepatitis) isn’t airborne like some diseases, and restaurant owners don’t want Hepatitis A associated with food services.”

Continue Reading Hepatitis A shots for restaurant staff?

By: Nancy Flake , Courier staff 10/15/2004
An outbreak of Hepatitis A has been confirmed in New Caney schools, with two students hospitalized with the disease.
According to New Caney Independent School District spokeswoman Cindee Reynolds, six students at White Oak Middle School and one student at Bens Branch Elementary school were confirmed Tuesday with the virus, which causes an acute inflammation of the liver.
“We notified parents Friday when we had three cases at White Oak and one at Bens Branch,” Reynolds said. “We’ve been offering immunizations at both schools.”
The Montgomery County Health Department has been called out to test both schools’ water supplies, because the schools are both new and located in the Briar Tree subdivision, Reynolds noted. “We had it tested last week and again this week, and the water’s fine,” she said.

Continue Reading Hepatitis A outbreak in New Caney schools hospitalizes two students

October 14, 2004
KCEN-TV
There are three confirmed cases of Hepatitis A at a Central Texas elementary school.
Parents of Milam Elementary students in Bryan received a letter on Sept. 24, 2004, notifying them of a single case of Hepatitis A in a kindergarten student. Since that time, two additional cases have been confirmed from the same classroom. Parents received letters Thursday notifying them of the additional confirmed cases.
Hepatitis A is a liver disease and once people recover from it, they are immune for life. The disease is rarely fatal and most people recover in a few weeks without any complications.
The Brazos County Health Department will continue to monitor the situation closely and take additional steps as needed according to CDC guidelines.

Associated Press
HEREFORD — More than 1,600 people in Deaf Smith County received hepatitis A shots this week after health officials discovered several cases of the illness, including a fast-food restaurant employee. ADVERTISEMENT
State Health Department workers alerted the public and urged residents to get the vaccine if they had eaten at the Hereford restaurant on a few days in September, the Hereford Brand reported.
Health officials administered the immune globulin shots Wednesday and Thursday, which was the last day the vaccine would have been effective in preventing the illness, said Dr. Connie Lindley, an epidemiologist. Such shots must be given within 14 days of exposure, Lindley said.
Hepatitis A is generally spread when someone eats or drinks something contaminated by an infected person.
Symptoms include fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting and abdominal discomfort. Jaundice, a yellowing of the skin and eyes, may occur after symptoms appear. The incubation period can be anywhere between 15 to 50 days.

Amarillo Globe News
By GEORGE SCHWARZ
george.schwarz@amarillo.com
HEREFORD – Public health officials here are fighting an outbreak of hepatitis A, and the battle could continue for months.
Officials have warned people who consumed food from the McDonald’s in Hereford after 4 p.m. Sept. 20, 22 or 23 that they may have been exposed to the mild liver disease. And they urge those people and others to consider an immune globulin shot, which prevents the viral disease, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The agency reported the health issue late Tuesday.
The number of cases has not been determined, said Dr. Connie Lindley, an epidemiologist with the TDSHS office in Canyon.
In a written statement released Wednesday, Susan Credle, the restaurant’s owner-operator, said she was aware of the investigation.
“Restaurant safety and cleanliness are extremely important to me, as well as my restaurant managers and crew employees,” she wrote. “Although this appears to be an isolated case, we are cooperating fully with the health department in their investigation, and we’re working with them to gather all the facts. We believe our restaurant is absolutely safe.”
The outbreak extends well beyond McDonald’s, Lindley said.
“We’ve had other cases,” she said. “It’s just that this worker happens to have worked at McDonald’s.”

Continue Reading Officials battle to limit cases of hepatitis A in Hereford

Customers Should Look For Symptoms, Officials Say
The Boston Channel
POSTED: 7:12 am EDT October 6, 2004
BOSTON — Boston health officials said a worker at an Italian-American club in the South Boston neighborhood has been diagnosed with hepatitis.
The officials said customers who ate at the club on East Third Street between Sept. 8 and Sept. 18 should look for symptoms of Hepatitis A and seek health care promptly if they feel them.
The officials also said customers should exercise strict hygiene, including hand washing with soap and hot water, in order not to pass the disease further.
Normally, people who are in contact with a person diagnosed with Hepatitis A are advised to take immune globulin injections, which can keep the liver disease from developing.
But immune globulin must be given within 14 days of exposure — and since more than 14 days have already passed, health officials say there’s no sense in giving the injections.