The Seneca County Health Department has confirmed a case of Hepatitis A in a food service worker employed at the McDonald’s outlet at 2500 Mound Rd. in Waterloo, NY.
This individual worked while they may have been shedding the Hepatitis A virus and before being diagnosed with the illness, the department stated. Because of how Hepatitis A is spread, this may have put customers and coworkers at that McDonald’s at risk of acquiring the virus. While public health officials are stressing there is a low risk of contracting illness, people who have not been previously vaccinated for Hepatitis A and who consumed food/drink from the Waterloo McDonald’s on the following dates should consider treatment.
- If you ate at the McDonald’s at 2500 Mound Rd. in Waterloo, NY, on Oct. 31, you should attend the Nov. 14, 2015, clinic.
- If you ate at the McDonald’s at 2500 Mound Rd., in Waterloo, NY, on any of the following dates, you should attend either the Nov. 14 or Nov. 15 clinic: Monday, Nov. 2; Tuesday, Nov. 3; Thursday, Nov. 5; Friday, Nov. 6; Sunday, Nov. 8, 2015.
If you were recently exposed to Hepatitis A virus and have not been vaccinated against Hepatitis A, you might benefit from an injection of either immune globulin or Hepatitis A vaccine. However, the vaccine or immune globulin must be given within the first two weeks after exposure to be effective. To this end, the Seneca County Health Department is setting up clinics to provide preventive treatment to individuals who visited the Waterloo McDonald’s. (For those getting vaccine, a second vaccine in six months will result in maximum protection.) Clinics offering the Hepatitis A vaccine are scheduled on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 1-8 p.m. EST, and on Sunday, Nov. 15, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST, at the Mynderse Academy Gymnasium, 105 Troy St., Seneca, NY. You can preregister here. There is no cost for the clinics. For other additional questions, call the New York State Department of Health Hotline at 1-844-364-6397. Hepatitis A is a contagious liver disease that results from infection with the Hepatitis A virus. It can range in severity from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a severe illness lasting several months. Hepatitis A is usually spread when a person ingests fecal matter — even in microscopic amounts — from contact with objects, food, or drinks contaminated by the feces, or stool, of an infected person. Some people with Hepatitis A do not have any symptoms. Children in particular may not show symptoms. If you do have symptoms, they may include the following: fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark-colored urine, clay-colored bowel movements, joint pain and jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes).
(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)
