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Article
published Saturday, February, 2009
Source of Article: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090207/NEWS16/902070374/0/SPORTS07
"We think the
risk is low, but we think it's real," said Dr. David Grossman, Still, the health
department encourages students who ate food prepared in the school's
cafeteria between Jan. 6 and Jan. 30, and who have not already been
vaccinated, to see a doctor and get the immunization. Dr. Grossman said a
female worker employed by AVI Foodsystems Inc.,
which operates the cafeteria, was diagnosed with Hepatitis A. She last worked at
Central Catholic on Jan. 30, and the case was reported to the health
department late Thursday. "This person
had excellent hygiene and very little contact with the food," Dr.
Grossman said. Hepatitis A is spread from person to person by the fecal to oral route. It
is most commonly spread within a household or by changing diapers. Once infected, a
person is capable of passing the virus for about two weeks before becoming
ill through 10 days after the onset of symptoms. Food service workers
have transmitted the virus, but proper hand washing and the use of gloves
significantly reduces the risk, Dr. Grossman said. He said casual
contact in the school would not spread the virus. The school's enrollment is
1,230 students, according to its Web site. The risk of
acquiring Hepatitis A is greatly reduced for students who already have been
vaccinated with the vaccine, completed the series, or previously had
Hepatitis A. The vaccination should be given on or before next Friday to be
most effective. Sally Oberski, director of communications for the Toledo
Catholic Diocese, said school officials wanted to be proactive. "Obviously,
they are concerned because it's a medical matter that affects their students
and faculty," Ms. Oberski said. "They
addressed the problem immediately when it was discovered and worked with the
health department and the company that services the cafeteria." Hepatitis A is the
least serious of the hepatitis strains. It causes intermittent nausea, yellow
skin, fatigue, loss of appetite, and abdominal pain. It results in about 100
deaths yearly in the By contrast,
Hepatitis B and C result from contact with infected blood. They both cause
thousands of chronic liver disease deaths each year in the In 2003, nearly 600
people were sickened by hepatitis and three died in the nation's largest
outbreak. The cause was blamed on contaminated green onions served at a
Mexican restaurant in the Beaver Valley Mall in suburban In 1998, an outbreak
of Hepatitis A in In January, 1999, health department
officials said they were not able to pinpoint the source but determined that
10 of the first 19 people to contract the disease lived within a two-mile
radius of |
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