2008 Health Alert # 4: Exposure to hepatitis A in bar patrons

Read the rest after the jump:

Please Distribute to All Clinical Staff in Emergency Medicine, Primary Care, Infectious Diseases, Family Medicine, and Infection Control Staff

. A patient with Hepatitis A worked as a bartender at the Socialista Bar at 505 West Street in the West Village in Manhattan.
. DOHMH is recommending that all people who went to the Socialista Bar on February 7th, 8th and 11th receive prophylaxis for hepatitis A as soon as possible.
. DOHMH is offering a free clinic for prophylaxis. Patients may also be treated at their private doctor's office according to the recommendations below.

2/21/2008

Dear Colleagues,
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is investigating a case of hepatitis A in a bartender who worked at the Socialista Bar at 505 West St in Manhattan. We are recommending that all people who drank anything at the bar during the below times receive prophylaxis against hepatitis A.

February 7th 8PM to closing
February 8th 8PM to closing
February 11th 10PM to closing

Free treatment will be available at:

Public School 41 Fri, Feb. 22 4-10pm
116 West 11th (at 6th Ave) Sat, Feb 23 1-8 pm
Manhattan Sun, Feb 24 1-6 pm

Additional information about the clinic location and hours is available through 311.

Bar patrons may also receive prophylaxis at their private physician's office. ACIP recommendations for hepatitis A prophylaxis after exposure are as follows:

. For healthy persons age ? 12 months to 40 years, hepatitis A vaccine at the age appropriate dose is preferred to IG because of vaccine's advantages, including long term protection and ease of administration.

. For persons > 40 years of age, IG plus vaccine is preferred because of the absence of information regarding vaccine performance and the more severe manifestations of hepatitis A in this age group.

. IG should be used for immunocompromised persons, persons who have been diagnosed with chronic liver disease, and persons for whom vaccine is contraindicated.

For the next 6 weeks, DOHMH asks that providers to have a heightened index of suspicion for hepatitis A in patrons of this bar and to report cases promptly.

A waitress at the Feb. 7 party at New York club Socialista tested positive for hepatitis A, a source at the New York Board of Health confirms to Star.

"A report will go out tomorrow that everyone who was at the club at Feb. 7, 8 and 11 will need to be tested," says the source. Madonna, Kate Hudson, Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu, Liv Tyler, Gwyneth Paltrow, Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart celebrated with Ashton and his wife Demi Moore.

Other guests included Salma Hayek and her husband, Lake Bell, Molly Sims, Amy Smart, Ivanka Trump, Parker Posey, Ali Larter, stylist Rachel Zoe, and designer Roberto Cavalli.

We promise to bring you updates on the well-being of your favorite celebrities as we get them, and ask, at this difficult moment, that you save the lion's share of your prayers for two potential victims in particular: Having just overcome a cleanse-related bout of intestinal duress, and a very public battle with a malignant cold sore, we only ask God that the already compromised immune systems of unwitting attendees Paltrow and Dane not be further taxed by the potentially serious, fecal-matter-transmitted disease.

• HEALTH SCARE AT ASHTON'S BIRTHDAY [Star Magazine]

Today, however, TMZ has obtained a letter sent out to guests of a February 7th party for Music & Lyrics informing them (including such high-wattage, buffet-hitting names like Sandra Bullock, Drew Barrymore, and Hugh Grant) that consuming the scrumptious tacos, loaded potato skins, and always-deadly peanut butter Fluffer Nutters on offer that fateful night may have put them at remote risk of infection, correspondence that was tragically delivered far too late for any concerned attendees to take preventive medical measures. While the Health Department has been less than cooperative in assisting TMZ in its quest to disseminate life-saving information about the scare, they've quietly been monitoring all potential Hepatitis A victims for signs that they've contracted the disease; the moment that Barrymore or Bullock display any symptoms, they'll be immediately rounded up and relocated to a celebrity internment camp, where they'll be forced to live out the rest of their miserable, liver-ravaged days among other jaundiced zombies in an attempt to contain a plague that could quickly decimate the city's population.

• Did the Cook Taint the Tacos? [TMZ]
• Full HepWatch Coverage [Defamer]

Oscarless singing sensation Beyoncé Knowles may be OK, but that still leaves thousands more local revelers who may have been exposed to the hepatitis A-tainted morsels of beef tenderloin and mini crab-cakes circulating among various Wolfgang Puck-catered parties in recent weeks. Guests of Sports Illustrated's bash are still anxiously awaiting the onset of symptoms, wondering now if digging a chocolate-covered strawberry out of that aspiring model's cleavage—an interaction which at the time felt so, so right—might have carried with it grave, liver-inflaming consequences. Similarly, the cavalcade of CGI experts on hand for the Visual Effects Society Awards Diner have also been waking up in cold sweats, fearful that the delicious tuna-tartare-on-a-potato-chip that they insisted their spouse take a bite of might soon cause their yellowish dooms. Well, fret not, sayeth the L.A. Department of Health, in a letter sent to all party attendees (download it here): The chances you have contracted hep-A are incredibly slim. But if you did, you're shit outta luck, since Immune Globulin shots only work within 2 weeks of exposure. Whoops! Sorry!

An excerpt from the letter is after the jump:

Dear Patron:

We are writing to inform you that you may have had a low risk exposure to hapatitis A at a recent even tif you ate uncooked food at a reception by the Wolfgang Puck Company on February 11th at the Visual Effects Society Awards Diner. [...]

This date is is past the 2 weeks in which Immune Globulin (IG) would be effective to prevent acquiring acute hepatitis A. However, in the unlikely event that you experience symtoms of actue hepatitis A in the seven weeks after the event, we encourage you to visit your doctor to obtain a blood test for acute hepatitis A and medical care. [...]

Please share a copy of this letter with other individuals that you know may have attended this event.

Sincerely, [signed]
Jonathan E. Fielding, MD, MPH
Director of Public Health and Health Officer

• Previously: Hollywood Hepatitis ScareWatch: A-List Directors At Risk! [Defamer]

Being stonewalled by the L.A. County Health Department hasn't stopped TMZ's team of Hep-investigators from discovering that directors George Lucas and John Landis might be at risk because of their attendance at the Visual Effects Society's awards banquet, two luminaries who will probably be seeking out precautionary globulin shots today now that they're aware of their liver-perforating peril. Unfortunately, TMZ's crusade may have come too late to help Puck himself, as an exclusive photo obtained by the site seems to reveal that the master chef has already been driven mad by prolonged exposure, as he's apparently equipped his kitchen with a clock prominently displaying infected cells and has taken to screaming incomprehensibly at shellfish.

• George Lucas, John Landis — At Puck Event [TMZ]
• Previously: Wolfgang Puck Hep Scare! [Defamer]