Workers at Arizona Subway Found to Have Hepatitis A

East Valley Tribune Mesa Friday, January 12, 2007 ?- Sarah J. Boggan

On Thursday, health officials in Pinal County said people who ate at a Subway restaurant at 1781 W. Hunt Hwy. from Dec. 10- 23 may have been exposed to hepatitis A. A food handler at the restaurant has been diagnosed with the disease. Symptoms, which may include jaundice, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, fever, diarrhea and nausea, can appear between 15 and 50 days, though they typically appear 28-30 days after exposure. County officials urged people who have symptoms and think they may have been exposed at the restaurant to contact their doctor. “It’s to the operator’s best interest to ensure that there aren’t sick people handling food,” said Reg Glos, director of the Pinal County Division of Environmental Health. “We encourage operators to have sick policies to not penalize employees for not working when they’re sick.”

This is not the first time that Subway has been implicated  in a Hepatitis A  incident.  We represented  over thirty people sickened when an ill worker was allowed to handle food.  The suit was Schuerhoff v. Subway.     We have also been involved in several other Hepatitis A outbreaks – See Marler Clark and Hepatitis A Litigation.  I have been an advocate of requiring all food handlers getting Hepatitis A vaccines prior to handling our food.