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How Hepatitis A Outbreaks Occur at Restaurants
If you follow the news, you will occasionally see reports about a hepatitis A outbreak at a restaurant. Hepatitis A is a highly contagious virus that humans can spread when not using proper hygiene during food preparation. Large outbreaks are usually traced to restaurants because one infected person preparing food can transmit the virus to numerous customers. Hepatitis A is rarely life-threatening unless you are already in poor health. However, you may still deserve compensation from a restaurant that exposed you to hepatitis A to pay for your medical expenses and other losses.
What Is Hepatitis A?
Hepatitis A is one form of the hepatitis virus, causing liver inflammation that can last for weeks or months. It is a fecal-oral disease, meaning that people are infected when the virus enters their mouth and can spread the virus through their feces. Symptoms can take two to seven weeks to appear and may include fever, fatigue, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, joint pain, and jaundice. People are at the greatest risk of contracting hepatitis A if they:
Protecting Yourself From Food Allergies at Restaurants
All restaurant patrons trust the food preparers and servers to provide them with a safe meal. For people with food allergies, a mistake can cause serious or even fatal health consequences. You can receive damages by filing a lawsuit against a restaurant that served you food with an allergen in it. However, it is more difficult to prove liability in a food allergy case than a food poisoning case because the restaurant is not strictly liable for food allergies. As a diner, you share some responsibility for informing the restaurant of your allergy and educating yourself on their food. By communicating your allergy concerns to a restaurant, you are protecting yourself against contaminated food and establishing clear liability if you have an allergic reaction.
E. Coli in Ground Beef Sends More than 20 People to Hospital
Two ground beef distributors were recently forced to recall their products after an E. coli outbreak that sickened 177 people in 10 states. Though no one is reported to have died, 21 people have been hospitalized since the outbreak started in March. One of the distributors is based in the Chicago area and at least one of the victims is from Illinois. Victims have reportedly eaten the contaminated beef both at home and in restaurants. A Kentucky woman has already filed a lawsuit against one of the packing companies, claiming that the contaminated ground beef caused her to suffer kidney failure and seizures.
Dangers of E. Coli
The ground beef products contained a strain of E. coli O103. Ground beef has a higher-than-average risk of E. coli contamination because bacteria from the cattle’s intestines can infect the meat and ground beef can contain multiple cattle, which increases the risk that one of them had E. coli. Symptoms from consuming E. coli can take three-to-four days to develop and may include:
Salmonella Outbreak in Chicago Area
People in the Chicago area have recently been warned that there has been a salmonella outbreak at a grocery store in the Archer Heights neighborhood that has already infected six people. The people became sick after eating carnitas and other foods they purchased at the kitchen counter of the Supermercado Rivera according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Anyone who ate the food may have been exposed to the bacteria, and anyone who took the food home and froze it has been advised to discard the possible contaminated items. The food items in question are no longer available, and the store employees have been educated on proper food handling, as well as the dangers of improper handling techniques and storage.
What is Salmonella?
Salmonella infection is a bacterial disease that causes issues with the intestinal tract and is often spread through feces. People are most likely to become infected through water or food that has been contaminated with the bacteria. Although most people do not show symptoms, some people will develop a fever, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps within eight to 72 hours of being exposed. Most healthy people will recover within a few days without any professional medical treatment.
How to Protect Against Food Poisoning Illnesses and Injuries
Health is one of the most important things in life, and most of us do whatever we can to stay in good physical condition. The foods we consume play a large role in our physical health, and sometimes, food poisoning can happen if certain foods are not prepared properly.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 48 million people in America become sick from various types of food poisoning every year, and 128,000 of these cases result in hospitalization. Foodborne illnesses can be fatal, and anyone who prepares food should take the following steps to avoid the risk of infection:
- Wash hands and clean cooking surfaces: Germs on an individual’s hands can spread to countertops and utensils, so it is important to wash one’s hands before cooking. Also, fruits and vegetables should be washed to remove any residual dirt or germs.
Nut Butters Contaminated with Listeria Could Cause Food Poisoning
For some people, nut butters can be a matter of life and death simply due to food allergies. These allergies can cause extreme reaction such as shortness of breath, swelling, and in severe cases, even death. In recent months, there has been an entirely different reason why some people are avoiding these creamy spreads. Several nut butters on the market have been recalled due to the possibility of contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.
Because these products have a long shelf life, there is a good possibility that you may have one of these products sitting on your pantry shelf right now. Listeria contamination in products that are ready to eat can cause serious illness and food poisoning because the consumer does not heat them to kill the pathogens before consuming.
What is Listeria Monocytogenes?
Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Settled for Improper Treatment of Elderly Patient
An elderly patient was diagnosed with cancer in 2015. What he did not know was that he also had a dormant form of Hepatitis B. While that may not seem like a big deal, it became a huge problem. Before beginning chemotherapy treatments, the patient should have been administered an antiviral medication to treat the Hepatitis. Failure to do so could result in the chemotherapy activating the dormant virus.
In this situation, that is exactly what happened. The patient was issued the chemotherapy without the antiviral treatment and the patient ultimately died from acute liver failure due to the Hepatitis B becoming active. The patient's family filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the medical facility and the case was resolved within six months of the case being filed.
A Night Out Turned Deadly
One of the most popular restaurants in Nashville, Tennessee is facing several million-dollar lawsuits after a salmonella outbreak struck roughly 20 of its patrons. It was early August, and many of the customers consumed eggs or egg-based dishes at a popular hotspot called Milk & Honey. The damages being alleged in the lawsuit are close to $6 million, and the authorities believe they have tracked infected eggs to one particular farm in Alabama.
Once food inspectors got involved, it was discovered that even though the farm produced infected eggs, the restaurant was also at fault. It was discovered that the restaurant was not cooking their dishes correctly, specifically a gnocchi dish. At the end of the day, the restaurant was blamed for poor training. They apparently were cooking the dishes 10 degrees lower than the industry standard for safe food preparation.
You Got Food Poisoning. Now What?
You Got Food Poisoning. Now What?
From romaine lettuce to ground turkey, a number of foods can cause food-borne illnesses. While some cases of food poisoning are fairly mild, others may result in extreme sickness and even death. However, no matter the severity, you shouldn't just “excuse” a food poisoning instance.
“What's most important, is that people who get food poisoning should know they are entitled to compensation,” states Gary Newland, an injury attorney and partner at Newland & Newland Law. “The reality is, you were poisoned. A food poisoning case is a product liability case. A restaurant or a preparer of food is held to strict liability, because this is such a serious, serious thing. The government says they are strictly liable for the damage they cause an injured person.”
First Things First
Before considering the legality of the issue, Newland advises individuals to take safety actions as soon as they suspect they might be ill. “Anyone who suspects they have food poisoning should go to a hospital immediately,” he notes. “The other important process to follow is to contact the health department. The reason it's important to contact the health department is because you can save lives.”
Individuals who are otherwise healthy may be able to tolerate the sickness—or even fend it off—but those with compromised immune systems could be at risk for a devastating impact. These groups include children, senior citizens, and anyone with a chronic medical condition.
If the health department determines the sickness was caused by a specific product, they will ensure that product is taken off the market to prevent further exposure.
Source of Romaine Lettuce Food Poisoning Outbreak Still Unknown
Regulators from the Food and Drug Administration say they have been unable to identify the source of contamination in a food poisoning outbreak that resulted in people being told to avoid romaine lettuce last fall. They studied a water reservoir at a Santa Barbara County farm in California that was contaminated with E. coli. However, the contaminated reservoir does not explain how other farms growing lettuce were also contaminated.
In addition, the short shelf-life of the leafy green makes it even more difficult to perform investigations in these types of outbreaks. Although food safety in leafy greens has been a long-standing issue, the industry continues to search for ways to minimize the risk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that when eating raw produce there is always a risk of being contaminated with a foodborne illness.
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