Cafe Worker Comes Down With Hepatitis As Many As 600 May Have Been Exposed At Post Falls Restaurant

A Post Falls food handler at Bobby’s Cafe exposed as many as 600 people to the hepatitis A virus, according to the Panhandle Health District on Wednesday.

The health district will provide immune globulin shots Friday between 1 and 7 p.m. for anyone who ate at the restaurant Nov. 14, 15 or 16. The clinic is located at 2195 Ironwood Court in Coeur d’Alene.

The owner of the restaurant at 103 W. Seltice Way, Bob Frazey, has volunteered to pay for the cost of the shots - a rare offer, said Steve McMillan, environmental health specialist for the district.

“Hepatitis A is the least serious type of hepatitis,” McMillan said. “There isn’t much chance of permanent liver damage or anything like that. On the flip side, it’s no walk in the park.”

Frazey believes the employee contracted the virus from eating at a restaurant in Spokane.

“We feel it was not anything that the restaurant or we have done,” he said. “This person had contracted it at a restaurant in Spokane because unbeknownst to us, there is an epidemic going on there.”

In Spokane, there have been at least 120 confirmed cases of hepatitis A, according to Dr. Kim Thorburn, director of the Spokane Regional Health District. Thorburn declared a public health emergency this week.

Bobby’s Cafe was closed Wednesday and will reopen Friday.

“There was no reason to shut down (permanently),” Frazey said. “We’ve always had perfect ratings with the health department.”

Restaurants are actually one of the least likely places to contract the virus, McMillan said.

“People kind of assume that it’s other people that don’t wash their hands and fail to look in their households,” he said.

Day cares, for example, are much more likely to spread the virus, he said.

Symptoms include loss of appetite, fever, stomach aches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and tiredness. Children often experience milder cases and exhibit fewer symptoms than adults, according to the health district.

Parents should especially make sure their children wash their hands after using the bathroom and before handling food, McMillan said.

The virus can be transmitted by eating food handled by an infected person, according to the district.

, DataTimes