Health dept: We balance public's need to know with needs of business; 20 sick with Hepatitis A in Illinois
KWQC is reporting that two workers at the Milan, Illinois, McDonald's tested positive for Hepatitis A but TV6 has learned one of those tests came back a month ago.
Even though the first case was confirmed back in mid-June, the Rock Island County Health Department didn't close the McDonald's until this past Wednesday. By then, another case had been confirmed.
.jpg)
The health department now says it didn't respond back then because it didn't know back then. The health department says it didn't find out about the case on June 9th until July 10th, a month later.
By law, the health department should have been notified within 24 hours. At a press conference Saturday afternoon, health department staff said the system broke down.
Wendy Trute with the Health Department said,
"There's a network of providers and there's a whole list of people responsible for reporting infectious diseases or communicable diseases."
The Health Department also says in addition to the two confirmed cases at the Milan McDonalds, there are also confirmed hepatitis A cases involving other local businesses.
We then asked which businesses, Trute said,
"You know what? It's not our policy to name them, nor is it the policy of the state health department. However, I can assure you we have worked with them and they have taken all the necessary pre-cautions required of them."
As far as communicating details to the public, the Health Department says it tries to balance the public's need to know with the needs of any business that may be involved.
There are 20 confirmed Hepatitis A case in Rock Island and surrounding areas, with 11 people being hospitalized.
It's OK, he's wearing oven mitts
The Edmonton Sun reports Adam Duerr got salmonella from his girlfriend.An inspector with Capital Health visited Duerr while working at his food service gig at The Italian Bakery in April and told them Duerr could not return to work until getting two negative tests for the bacteria.
He went back to work anyway.
When confronted by a health inspector, Renato Frattin, an owner-manager of the bakery, told the inspector the worker wore oven mitts while removing loaves of bread from the oven and placing them on cooling racks.
Frattin and Duerr were both fined $1,150 in court yesterday after pleading to the same charge.
Yes, people will abuse the system, but sick employees should stay at home.
