It’s much better to get vaccinated before exposure.

Customers who recently ate at the Fairway Market deli on Quadra Street in Victoria, British Columbia (that’s in Canada) are urged to get vaccinated for hepatitis A after an employee tested positive for the virus this week.

The Vancouver Island Health Authority is urging anyone who ate deli food prepared in-store on March 18, 19, 20, 22, 25 or 26 to receive a hepatitis A vaccine as a precaution.

Drop-in immunization clinics for Fairway Market employees and eligible members of the public will take place Saturday and Sunday at the Victoria Health Unit, located at 1947 Cook St., from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Customers at the deli between March 7 and 15 may also have been exposed to the virus but vaccines will no longer be effective because too much time has passed, said Charmaine Enns, a VIHA medical health officer.

"It becomes of interest to the public and to us when that [infected] person is a food handler, because then it’s not just that person’s circle of close contacts who is at risk, it’s the general public now at risk," Enns said.