010338 Demand For Vaccinations for Food Handlers

Seattle - Due to the recent hepatitis-A outbreak in Orlando, Fla., food safety attorneys from the Seattle law firm Marler Clark are renewing their plea to restaurants and food manufacturers to voluntarily vaccinate employees against hepatitis-A.

Large, well-publicized hepatitis-A outbreaks have become increasingly common in the restaurant industry, including outbreaks linked to two Seattle Subway outlets, a Carl's Jr. restaurant in Spokane, Wash., three restaurants in Northwest Arkansas, a Maryland restaurant, and now the Crab House seafood restaurant in Orlando -- an outbreak that may have resulted in one death -- and hepatitis infections in people living as far away as France and Canada.

“The restaurant industry and food manufacturers must finally take action and vaccinate all of their employees before an outbreak occurs, not after,” said Denis Stearns, an attorney with Marler Clark and a frequent speaker at industry conferences on risk management and the importance of hand washing.

“Absent that step, an effective and rigorous hand washing policy is the single most important means of stopping the spreading infection,” added Stearns. Last year, Stearns obtained a $1.06 million settlement on behalf of 29 persons who were infected with hepatitis-A after eating contaminated food at two Seattle Subway Sandwich franchises. Marler Clark also represented the exposure victims of the Carl's Jr. hepatitis-A outbreak that occurred last year in Spokane.

The Centers for Disease Control (“CDC”) estimates that 83,000 cases of hepatitis-A occur in the United States every year, and at least five-percent of these cases are related to foodborne transmission. In 1999, over 10,000 people were hospitalized due to hepatitis-A infections and 83 people died. Although the CDC has not called for mandatory vaccination of food service workers, it has repeatedly pointed out that the consumption of worker-contaminated food is a major cause of foodborne illness in the United States.

RETURN TO HOME PAGE

E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com