Maine Health official today are in the process of filing a court order to detain a health care worker for 21 days who MAY have been exposed to the Ebola virus in Africa – but does NOT have Ebola.
However, those same officials refuse to name the restaurant in Cumberland County, Maine where a food service worker with an acute Hepatitis A infection worked while infectious from September 29 to October 11, 2014.
According to news reports, the employee’s illness and food and beverage preparation practices might have placed patrons at risk for a Hepatitis A infection. However, the agency was notified of the illness beyond the 14-day window of opportunity for post-exposure prophylaxis vaccines to be most effective.
Maine health officials encouraged health care providers to remain vigilant for Hepatitis A infection in persons with symptoms – fever, jaundice, nausea, clay-colored stool, dark urine, malaise, abdominal discomfort, or anorexia. The Hepatitis A virus is transmitted via the fecal-oral route, commonly through consumption of contaminated food or water. Persons will begin to exhibit symptoms 15-50 days after exposure to the virus. A person is considered infectious approximately two weeks prior to symptom onset until one week after onset of symptoms.