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Hepatitis outbreak in South Utah County March 21, 2018, 6:55 pmAccording to Aislynn Tollman-Hill of the Utah County Health Department, two cases of hepatitis A were reported in Utah County in connection with two food outlets. The two hepatitis A cases were discovered in connection with two Spanish Fork locations of the restaurants Sonic and Olive Garden. Since the discovery, according to Tollman-Hill, a third food outlet has been added to the list of food establishments in Utah County with possible Hepatitis A exposures. Tollman-Hill says it was discovered that Tabitha's Way Food Pantry, also in Spanish Fork, had received donations from the Spanish Fork Olive Garden location and "could potentially expose individuals to Hepatitis A due to an infected employee working while infectious." As a result of the local outbreak, the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) states, "we needed to notify the public that if they had eaten at or used the restroom at these 2 restaurants during certain dates, they could have been exposed to hepatitis A." According to the UDOH, as many as 15,000 individuals might have been exposed to the potentially fatal disease. The UDOH suggests that concerned individuals refer to the following website-- http://health.utah.gov/epi/diseases/hepatitisA/HAVoutbreak_2017 for information on Hepatitis A, its symptoms, and infectious periods, etc. So far, there is some potentially good news. Tollman-Hill of UDOC says "As of today, we have not had any secondary cases based on these." Nonetheless, she also says, "[But] we certainly could have cases crop up, based on the incubation period." Those concerned that they might have been exposed will be interested to know that according to Tollman-Hill the UDOH has set up an online self-assessment tool for concerned individuals to see if they might be at risk for the disease. Tollman-Hill says, "The first day over 4,000 people completed the assessment, with nearly 10,000 hits on the tool itself. I don't have any other final numbers of the tool; I know they were dropping down by the third day. That online tool was great, so people could access it anytime of day or night without having to call and waiting to speak with someone. The state also took many calls for us - close to 300 the first day." On a larger scale, the Utah Department of Health believes that these [local] cases are associated with the larger Hepatitis A outbreak going on in Utah and the United States. For more information, refer to the following Center for Disease Control (CDC) website-- https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/outbreaks/2017March-HepatitisA.htm. The community news source for Eagle Mountain Utah, Saratoga Springs Utah, Lehi Utah, American Fork Utah, Highland Utah, Alpine Utah, and The Cedar Valley, including Cedar Fort Utah and Fairfield Utah. Copyright 2024 The Crossroads Journal LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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