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Only Sanitary Conditions Can Stop the Hepatitis A Outbreaks

By Pritzker | Ruohonen

Seven cases of Hepatitis A have been reported in Hawkins County Tennessee.  The Northeast Regional Health Office has not identified any common source, but is offering Hepatitis A vaccine to all residents of the area (WCYB). Hepatitis A is a liver disease usually characterized by mild, flu-like gastrointestinal symptoms.  At its worst, it can impair proper functioning of the liver and can lead to death.

This outbreak of Hepatitis A comes after 21 people were sickened by the same virus at a Chipotle restaurant in La Mesa, California.  One of the most common ways the virus is spread is through the food and the food handler.  No source has been identified in the Tennessee outbreak, and all workers at the La Mesa Chipotle tested negative for Hepatitis A.  In the La Mesa case, the negative results are not enough proof to rule out the food handler due to the long incubation period of the virus.

The virus is spread person to person by materials contaminated with an infected person’s feces. The illness is most easily spread in places with poor sanitary conditions or when workers do not observe good personal hygiene.  Workers can contaminate food during processing or in restaurants. In most cases, foods come into contact with water that has been contaminated with the feces of an infected individual, which then contaminates the food.  It is therefore essential that restaurants and food processors maintain strict sanitation rules and insist that employees maintain good hygiene so that the spread of the Hepatitis A virus can be curbed.

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on May 30, 2008 (boomark / email).