Hepatitis A outbreak in Pennsylvania coming to an end

By Joe Mandak
The Associated Press

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Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., met with Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state health officials at a community college near the Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurant where the outbreak was confirmed Nov. 3.

"We do feel like this particular outbreak has been successfully ended," Gerberding said.

With 605 infections and three deaths confirmed, health officials have found no secondary cases, meaning all those infected were sickened at the restaurant by the scallions. Most of the green onions were used in salsa and a dip.

What remains is pinpointing how the onions were tainted. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identified eight brands of Mexican-grown green onions believed to have caused the Pennsylvania outbreak. Green onions also are suspected of causing outbreaks in Georgia and Tennessee that have sickened more than 330 people, and the strains of hepatitis A found in those states and Pennsylvania are very similar.

But the FDA has yet to determine how and where — from the onion fields to the Chi-Chi's northwest of Pittsburgh and more than a dozen restaurants in the other states — the contamination occurred.

Hepatitis A is a virus that attacks the liver and can cause fever, nausea, diarrhea, jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain and loss of appetite. It usually clears up on its own in about two months, although it can cause liver failure and death.

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