A public health alert has been issued for the Edmonton area after a food handler working at the Belgian Beer Café and Boston Pizza at Edmonton International Airport has been confirmed to have hepatitis A.
Alberta Health Services announced the alert had been issued in a news release Tuesday night.
The health authority asked that people who consumed food or drink from either restaurant during on certain dates and at certain times (see details below) may have been exposed to hepatitis A and should call Health Link at 1-888-851-1919 immediately. Health link will assess those people’s exposure risk and book a preventative hepatitis A vaccine, if eligible.
AHS said “a vaccine given after exposure can prevent the development of the hepatitis A illness.” However, immunization must happen within 14 days of exposure to prevent the illness from occurring.
People who are already vaccinated against hepatitis A or have previously had hepatitis A are not at risk from this exposure, AHS said.
Dates of possible exposure:
Belgian Beer Café:
Oct. 5 from 2 – 9 p.m.
Oct. 7, 8 and 11 from 4:30 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.
Oct. 12 from 1 – 8 p.m.
Boston Pizza:
Oct. 1 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Oct. 7 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Oct. 8 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
AHS asked that people who might have been exposed monitor their symptoms for 50 days following the potential exposure.
Hepatitis A is an infection of the liver due to a virus.
Symptoms of hepatitis A include tiredness, poor appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fever, dark-coloured urine, light-coloured stools and yellowing of the eyes and skin.
“There is no ongoing risk of infection associated with either restaurant and this case is not a risk to the greater general public,” said Dr. Michael Zakhary, the medical officer of health for AHS’ Edmonton zone.
“Public health inspectors have visited and spoken with the operators of the restaurants to review food safety practices and the locations are safe to operate.”