Saskatchewan public health: hotel guest may have exposed 1000+ to hepatitis A

Posted on by

This one confuses me a bit. There must be more to this story than what is being reported. According to Global News  a Riverhurst, Saskatchewan (that’s in Canada) hotel guest with hepatitis A has caused a public health response usually only seen in food service.

There’s a small chance that visitors to a Saskatchewan resort motel last month may have been exposed to hepatitis A.

Health officials said a person with a disease stayed at the Mainstay Inn Motel and Restaurant near Riverhurst between June 1 and 22 has the disease.

During that time period, an estimated 1,100 people may have been exposed.

Of greatest concern is anyone who ate or drank at the location between June 18 and 22; unvaccinated visitors may need to be immunized, say health officials.

Did this person go through the kitchen or cooler and touch bunch of food? Did they smear poop all over the place? Why the large response for a non-foodhandler?

 

This entry was posted in E. coli by Ben Chapman. Bookmark the permalink.

About Ben Chapman

Dr. Ben Chapman is a professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. As a teenager, a Saturday afternoon viewing of the classic cable movie, Outbreak, sparked his interest in pathogens and public health. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers, and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, maybe not surprisingly, Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman.