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Illinois Hepatitis Outbreak Not to be Taken Lightly

By PritzkerLaw

People sometimes shrug at the physical harm caused by hepatitis A -- an infectious virus most often spread by infected restaurant workers who do not wash their hands after going to the bathroom.

In Rock Island County, Illinois, right now an Illinois hepatitis A outbreak  has sickened at least 19 people and health officials at the state and county level are urging strict hygiene by restaurant workers and others to help contain the outbreak.

In this hepatitis outbreak, a McDonald's restaurant in Milan closed early on Thursday and its employees were screened by the county health department to see if anyone is carrying hepatitis A to McDonald's customers in Milan. The cause of the outbreak is still under investigation.

It is true that most people who become infected with hepatitis A return to normal health without treatment. But more than one-fifth of adult hepatitis A patients require hospitalization. Although the illness is more common in youth, it is often more severe in adults.

In severe cases, hepatitis A can impair liver function and cause permanent damage to the liver. Most of these cases require hospitalization. Each year in the U.S., appropximately 100 people die as a result of hepatitis A infections.

As a leading national food safety lawyer, Fred Pritzker of Pritzker Olsen Attorneys  has seen more than his share of restaurant outbreaks of hepatitis A. And, invariably, the root cause is not so much the poor hygiene on the part of an infected employee who touches food and drinks. Rather, it is a failure on the part of the restaurant owner to have policies in place to keep ill employees from working and to strictly enforce hand-washing. (People can be infected with hepatitis A for a week or more without knowing it.) It is also crucial for restaurants to screen employees for this virus as soon as there is the least suspicion of an associated outbreak.

So remember, hepatitis A is nothing to take lightly to protect your family. If an outbreak is linked by investigation to a single restaurant, look first at the restaurant's policies and practices regarding food-safe hygiene, screening and keeping infected workers off the job. That's where the problems usually begin.

If you or a loved one have been sickened with hepatitis A in the Illinois outbreak, whether you are an employee or a customer, contact Pritzker Olsen at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or write to us online for a free case consultation. The form is short and simple. If we agree to take your case, we don't get paid unless you do.

Pritzker Olsen is one of the few law firms in the country practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation. We have represented hepatitis A victims in restaurant cases and have collected millions of dollars for victims of food poisoning.

Remember that in hepatitis A cases, restaurants are responsible for any injury caused by the food they served. 

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on July 18, 2009 (boomark / email).