3 more hepatitis cases reported among Lexington food workers

Lexington Herald-Leader graphic

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Three more restaurant workers in the Lexington area have been found to have hepatitis A, but the state still has no food-borne cases of the disease more than 15 months into a statewide outbreak of then liver disease, health officials said.

“Anyone who ate in November at the Hardee’s at 2990 Richmond Road in Lexington, the Waffle House at 2347 Buena Vista Road in Lexington or the Waffle House at 4 Carol Road in Winchester may have been affected,” Morgan Eads of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports, based on information from the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department.

The department said in a news release, “While it is relatively uncommon for restaurant customers to become infected with the hepatitis A virus due to an infected food handler, anyone who consumed food or drink at these locations during the stated time period is advised to get a hepatitis A vaccination.” It said the three employees won’t return to work until they are medically cleared.

Hepatitis A can be transmitted from person to person by food or water contaminated by fecal material. Symptoms include fatigue, stomach pain, nausea, darkened urine and yellowed skin. The health department recommends getting vaccinated for the disease and carefully washing hands with warm water and soap after using the bathroom, and before making food and drinks.

Through Nov. 17, the outbreak had affected 2,769 Kentuckians, hospitalized 1,438 and killed 17, according to the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services.