Food Poisoning Law Blog : Food Poisoning Lawyer & Attorney : PritzkerLaw : Food Safety, Outbreaks & Recalls

The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) publishes reported "notifiable" diseases every week. Below is information published in this week's MMWR on illnesses that are often foodborne that were reported during the week ending August 20, 2011:

Hemolytic uremic syndrome, postdiarrheal
6 reported cases in the United States: Missouri (1), North Carolina (1), Tennessee (2), Arkansas (1), Oregon (1).

Listeriosis
14 reported cases in the United States: New York (1), Pennsylvania (1), Ohio (2), Florida (1), Texas (1), Colorado (2), Washington (1), California (5).

Hepatitis A
13 reported cases in the United States: Pennsylvania (1),  Ohio (1), Florida (1), Maryland (3), North Carolina (1), South Carolina (2), Arizona (1), Idaho (1), Colorado (1), California (1).

Salmonellosis
773 reported cases in the United States:  Maine (2), Vermont (1), New York (66), Pennsylvania (27), Michigan (3), Ohio (31), Iowa (4), Kansas (8), Missouri (20), Nebraska (13), Deleware (3), District of Columbia (1), Florida (148), Georgia (42), Maryland (32), North Carolina (42), South Carolina (37), Virginia (27), Kentucky (2), Mississippi (9), Tennessee (32), Arkansas (25), Louisiana (2), Oklahoma (32), Texas (81), Arizona (1), Colorado (23), Idaho (1), Montana (3), New Mexico (1), California (44), Washington (9).

Shiga-toxin producing E. coli (usually E. coli O157)
74 reported cases in the United States: Maine (1), New York (12), Pennsylvania (3), Michigan (3), Ohio (10), Missouri (6), Nebraska (1), Delaware (1), Florida (9), Maryland (1), North Carolina (3), South Carolina (1), Virginia (3), Mississippi (1), Tennessee (5), Arkansas (2), Oklahoma (2), Texas (2), Colorado (4), California (1), Washington (3).

Shigellosis
148 reported cases in the United States: New York (9), Ohio (7), Kansas (1), Missouri (3), Florida (48), Georgia (2), Maryland (4), North Carolina (1), Virginia (2), Mississippi (2), Tennessee (3), Arkansas (2), Oklahoma (2), Texas (48), Arizona (1), Colorado (1), Montana (1), California (10), Oregon (1).

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About 12 percent of foodservice workers who were surveyed about their work attendance said they had gone to work while sick with diarrhea or vomiting -- a rate that Penn State University professors said was alarming. The survey was published in the February 2011 edition of the Journal of Food Protection and summarized by the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences.

In the summer of 2009, a worker at the McDonald's restaurant in Milan, Illinois, attended work over a period of days while she was sick with Hepatitis A. The exposure caused a Hepatitis outbreak of diarrheal illness, Hep A,  that sickened at least 30 people. Scores of others may have avoided illness by obtaining a hepatitis A vaccine at an impromptu clinic set up by public health leaders in Illinois. It was a painful reminder that foodborne pathogens such as Hepatitis A, Shigella and Norovirus are often spread by sick workers to restaurant patrons through food.

National food safety law firm PritzkerOlsen, P.A., represented victims in the Illinois Hepatitis A outbreak and has been involved in other outbreaks around the country where infected foodservice workers have spread illness by coming into work. 

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More than a thousand people in northwestern Illinois  have been vaccinated to help contain the McDonald's hepatitis outbreak that health officials suspect was caused by two McDonald's employees who were sick with hepatitis A in Milan, Illinois, and continued to work.

The free vaccination clinic is located in makeshift quarters at Rock Island High School, staffed with Illinois state epidemiologists and about 150 volunteers. People under the age of 40 are receiving a vaccination while those older than 40 receive the drug immune globulin.

The Rock Island County Health Department has confirmed 20 cases in the NW Illinois hepatitis outbreak. Of those, 11 people were hospitalized. Officials have said 14 of the confirmed cases are in Rock Island County, with the remainder in outlying counties.

One of those sickened in the hepatitis A outbreak is a worker at a Milan daycare center known as Just Kids. The health department ordered the daycare closed and scrubbed down. It is located one mile away from the McDonald's.

The Milan McDonald's closed for parts of three days for a micro-cleaning. Kevin Murphy, the owner, said in a statement that he was first notified July 13  that hepatitis may be affecting his restaurant. He said he closed the store two days later.

The vaccination center is set up to handle up to 5,000 vaccinations. Any customers of the Milan McDonald's who ate there July 6-10 or July 13-14 are encouraged to get vaccinated.

The disease is primarily spread in fecal-oral transmission by infected restaurant employees who don't wash their hands after using the toilet.

National food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen Attorneys is urging those people who may have become exposed to the disease to get shots. Founder and president Fred Pritzker has called on McDonald's to immediately pay for the vaccinations and for short-term financial expenses and costs.

Restaurants are  liable to patrons for illnesses, including hepatitis, caused by food provided by the restaurant. This means the Milan McDonald's may be liable for compensation claims made by people who ate there and became sickened with hepatitis A. Conceivably, compensation could include:

• Medical expenses
• Lost income
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Disability
• Loss of quality of life

If you or a loved one has been sickened with hepatitis A, please contact our law firm by dialing 1-888-377-8900 (toll free). We have considerable experience representing victims of hepatitis A. If you prefer writing to us, fill out one of our forms online and submit it to us for a free case consultation. 

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