There’s a hepatitis A risk for anyone who ate strawberry food at some restaurants

A voluntary national recall of frozen Egyptian strawberries has been issued because of the possibility of hepatitis A contamination, and several restaurants in Tulare and Fresno counties have had to throw out the bad strawberries.

So far, there are no reports to public health officials in the two counties that anyone has contracted the disease from the tainted strawberries.

In Tulare County, Apple Annie’s restaurant in Tulare and Sanad Freeze restaurant in Earlimart got deliveries of the strawberries.

In Fresno County, about 75 restaurants and 25 long-term care facilities and schools are on a list of entities that may have received the strawberries, although not all did get them, county health department officials said.

Affected restaurants and food services were notified by both their food wholesalers and county environmental health departments to dispose of the product.

The frozen strawberries were for food service environments only and not available for purchase in ordinary retail food stores, said Dr. Ken Bird, Fresno County public health officer.

The problem appears to have started in May in Virginia and worsened in June and July when people started reporting being ill, especially those who drank smoothies from the Tropical Smoothie Cafe chain, the Food and Drug Administration said.

A total of 134 cases of people being affected are known, and the FDA said 52 people were hospitalized nationally. The exposure has been reported in nine states: Arkansas, California, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Oregon, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

Bird said only one case has been reported in California involving someone who purchased a product from back East.

The danger period appears to have passed, he said. “In my opinion, it was more of a concern a couple of months ago,” Bird said.

In Fresno County, the last two cases of hepatitis A were reported in July.

Hepatitis A is a contagious liver disease, and the virus is commonly spread through food.

Symptoms include fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, jaundice, joint pain, dark urine and pale stool. Illness occurs within 50 days of exposure and can range from mild illness lasting several weeks to serious illness lasting several months.

The FDA said the last known case of hepatitis A associated with the strawberries occurred Oct. 27.

The California Department of Public Health issued a list of restaurants and other entities in the state that received the strawberries.

In Tulare County, the health department is advising anyone who drank strawberry lemonade or ate waffles, pancakes or French toast with strawberry topping at Apple Annie’s from Oct. 24-28, or had strawberry ice cream at Sanad Freeze from Oct. 25-28, to look out for symptoms.

Anyone who has eaten the strawberries in the past two weeks could be offered a preventative vaccine called post-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP, said Dr. Karen Haught, Tulare County’s public health officer.

“The vaccine must be administered within two weeks,” she said, although it isn’t needed if the person is immune to hepatitis A, or had a previous infection or tested positive for exposure in the past six months.

Those who may have consumed the strawberries should consult their health care provider or the health department to determine if they need a vaccination, Haught said.

Jose Perdomo, the manager of Apple Annie’s, said Friday his food supplier called him a week ago.

“We discontinued everything and immediately put it the garbage,” he said.

No customers have reported getting sick, and the restaurant has so many regular customers he believes he would have heard something if someone did get ill.

Sanad Al, owner of Sanad Freeze, said his supplier and the county called him. The supplier gave him a sign to put on the door about the situation, he said.

The Tulare County Public Health Department can be reached at 559-685-5720 or 559-471-7092 after 5 p.m. Go here for more information.

This story was originally published November 4, 2016 at 11:47 AM with the headline "There’s a hepatitis A risk for anyone who ate strawberry food at some restaurants."