Personal Injury Law

Report: Illinois hepatitis A outbreak would have been prevented with proper handwashing (and vaccination)

By Dr. Doug Powell

The Illinois Health Department has concluded its investigation into this summer's hepatitis A outbreak and found that most of the cases originated at the Milan McDonald's and most of the cases 'would have been prevented' if only that one employee had properly washed hands.

The findings of the investigation by the Illinois Department of Public Health concludes "the index case was a food handler at the McDonalds in Milan, Illinois and had onset of illness June 11." Investigators also found "other possible sources in the community were ruled out."

And, "The source of the outbreak for the majority of outbreak cases was food eaten at the McDonalds, Milan, Illinois where a food handler worked while infectious and handled foods that were not later cooked."

The state investigation goes on to say that "if the first employee with hepatitis A had used proper hand-washing technique while working the transmission of hepatitis A through food would not have occurred."
 

Full post as published by BarfBlog on December 02, 2009 (boomark / email).