Frozen strawberries from Egypt lead to 70 cases of hepatitis A in 7 states, including Va.
Frozen strawberries from Egypt lead to 70 cases of hepatitis A in 7 states, including Va. and Md.
As of early Friday morning, 70 cases of hepatitis A in seven states have been linked to tainted frozen strawberries shipped to the United States from Egypt and served by a popular smoothie restaurant chain.
Most of the cases of the liver infection caused by the hepatitis A virus are in the Mid-Atlantic area.
With 55 confirmed cases, Virginia contains the bulk of the outbreak. Six more cases were confirmed in Maryland, five in West Virginia, and one in North Carolina, Wisconsin, New York and Oregon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.
As of now, 32 people have been hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported.
The number of confirmed cases — which The Washington Post reported to be 35 last Friday, after the Virginia Health Department announced that a Northern Virginia restaurant worker had been diagnosed with the disease — has been steadily growing throughout the week.
The strawberries appear to have been served in Tropical Smoothie Cafe, a company that began in Tallahassee in 1997. It now boasts more than 500 locations across the United States, including a cluster in Northern Virginia.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/09/02/frozen-strawberries-from-egypt-lead-to-70-cases-of-hepatitis-a-in-7-states-including-va-and-md/?hpid=hp_rhp-morning-mix_mm-hepa%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
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