T.O. Public Health Issues Warning After Restaurant Food Handler Develops Hepatitis A
Posted October 23, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Toronto Public Health has issued a warning after a worker at a local restaurant tested positive for Hepatitis A.
The patient worked as a food handler at the Sushi Haru located at 635 College St. and officials are worried because his job involved coming into contact with things on the menu, potentially spreading the disease to customers.
Although they say the risk is low for Hep A to spread through food, that risk increases when the food isn’t cooked and they’re worried that others may have been exposed to the illness and don’t even know it.
If you were at the eatery between September 30th and October 1st or October 6-10th, you may need to be checked.
Hepatitis A affects the liver and is easily spread by coming into contact with an infected substance or surface. You can’t get it through coughing or sneezing, but it can be contracted if someone doesn’t wash their hands properly and then handles food that’s served to others. That appears to be what happened in this case.
Public Health has only now discovered the problem and that tardiness may be somewhat problematic if you’re one of those affected. There is a vaccine, but it’s only effective for up to 14 days after your original exposure.
That means those who were there on October 8th or earlier won’t benefit by getting the vaccine.
If you were at Sushi Haru on October 9th, you’d need to get your shot on Thursday or the deadline runs out. You can either see your doctor or go to a walk-in clinic, but it would have to be done before the end of the day. If the place you go doesn’t have it, the vaccine will be sent over immediately by Public Health.
Those who ate at the diner on October 10th can also get a shot now or wait until Friday, when a special walk-in clinic will be held at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau School at 65 Grace St., near College. The hours are 3-7pm.
If you think you’re one of those who missed the deadline, call your doctor or Public Health at a special hotline, (416) 416-338-7600. It will be staffed until 8pm Thursday, from 9am to 8pm Friday and on Saturday from 9am to 4pm.
But what happens if you’re one of the unfortunates who don’t fit in the timeline? Doctors say there’s not much you can do but wait and watch for symptoms. Some won’t have any at all. Others could get mildly sick. And the unlucky few will get seriously ill, although most will recover completely.
What should you watch for?
- Fever,
- Loss of appetite,
- Tiredness,
- Nausea/vomiting,
- Dark urine and most famously,
- Yellowing of the skin (jaundice).
It can take eight weeks after your exposure for the symptoms to show up so you may not even be sick yet. If you have any questions, be sure to seek medical help.
Toronto Public Health is reminding those involved that it’s very rare for the ailment to be passed on, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
What took so long to find out about the problem? A spokesperson tells CityNews.ca that the employee just became ill and had to wait for confirmation tests that only came back on Wednesday. The city wasn’t told until after that and put out the warning as soon as it could.
The good news is the restaurant isn’t that big, averaging about 100 customers or less a day. The bad news is that it offers takeout and that food could have potentially gone home to be shared with other family members or co-workers – meaning you don’t have to have physically been there to be part of the alert.
Sushi is also uncooked, elevating the danger.
Officials want to stress this was an isolated incident and that it’s perfectly safe to eat at the establishment now that the one-time only problem has been diagnosed.
