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Home>Articles>Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A
Should you as a restaurant
owner or manager be concerned?

Did you know?

• An outbreak of hepatitis A can cost your restaurant more than $100,000.
  
• A hepatitis A outbreak occurred in a mid-west city that lasted for more than 2 years. It was directly linked to one employee at a fast-food restaurant.
  
• When a food handling employee at a restaurant is infected with hepatitis A, the restaurant is required to notify the community.

What is hepatitis A?

Hepatitis A is an infection of the liver that causes fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, and jaundice (yellowing of the skin, eyes and darkening of urine.) Adults are usually more ill than children. The illness can last from two weeks to six months.

How is hepatitis A spread?

Hepatitis A is spread through the "fecal-oral" route of transmission. This means that someone infected with hepatitis A can spread this disease if they do not wash their hands after toileting and proceed to prepare or handle food for other people, share food or cigarettes with other people, or touch other people.

Who gets hepatitis A?

Anyone can get hepatitis A. People who live with or have sexual contact with people with the disease are at highest risk of contracting it. It also spreads easily in daycare settings where many children are in diapers and cannot wash their own hands. Anyone who eats food prepared by an infected person can also get hepatitis A.

Why is this a concern in the restaurant industry?

Generally, the restaurant industry is not a major player in outbreaks of hepatitis A. However, one food handling employee with hepatitis A can potentially infect dozens of other people, including your patrons and other employees. If your restaurant is responsible for even one case, the negative publicity, legal costs, and loss of revenue from having to close your doors can be devastating.

What can we do to prevent hepatitis A at our restaurant?

One of the best ways of preventing hepatitis A from spreading is by strict adherence to personal hygiene.  This includes restricting ill employees from handling food and enforcing hand washing of all employees before handling food and after toileting. Excluding an employee from work with symptoms, however, may be too late - a person is contagious with hepatitis A two weeks before symptoms ever develop. There is a vaccine that protects against hepatitis A which would eliminate the risk of this type of foodborne illness.

Should I have my staff vaccinated?

There is no right answer. One needs to assess the pro’s and con’s of vaccinating restaurant employees.

PRO’s:

• The cost of an hepatitis A outbreak far exceeds the costs of vaccinating staff.
• This greatly reduces the risk of a hepatitis A outbreak in your restaurant.
• This is one more measure you can take to protect your patrons from foodborne illness.
• This demonstrates to the community that you are committed to food safety.
• You will be providing long term protection for your employees from this disease.

Home>Articles>Hepatitis A

Berger Food Safety Consulting
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(617) 445-1647
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