Hepatitis A: Two restaurants – Two different reactions – Kudos to Chili’s

Restaurants, PLEASE vaccinate your employees.

According to New York press reports, the Oneida County Health Department as well as Rome Memorial Hospital are partnering to provide Hepatitis A. vaccinations to those who think they were exposed.

This comes after the health department announced that an employee at Cianfroccos in Rome tested positive for Hepatitis A. Management at the restaurant has urged that the health department has checked the property and their customers have nothing to be worried about.

But health officials aren’t taking any chances, so far this weekend, over 130 people have participated in the vaccinations.

Hospital officials want to stress that there has been no outbreak of the virus. But encourage anyone who thinks they may have been exposed during a certain period of time, to take advantage of the vaccination.

The window of exposure that we have identified seems to be between February 12th and 23rd.

Vaccines will be available at the E. Chestnut Commons from 8 am to 4 pm on Sunday, March 1st.

In Missouri, health officials in Joplin confirm a case of Hepatitis A at Chili’s on Range Line. The department was first notified of the Hepatitis A case on Tuesday by a local hospital. That notification was made per state regulations not only for tracking purposes, but because it was at a restaurant.

Health officials say a work restriction was placed on Chili’s employees who may have had contact with the person involved. “To lift the restriction the employee has to provide proof of prior Hepatitis A vaccination, they have to get a hepatitis a vaccination now and not be ill currently.”

Chili’s parent company, Brinker International sent a statement saying quote:

“After learning one of our team members was affected, we immediately excluded this individual from work and partnered with the Joplin Department of Health to prevent the potential spread by proactively offering vaccinations to all of our team members.”

Republished with permission from Bill Marler and Marler Clark. Copyright (c) Marler Clark LLP, PS. All rights reserved.