SUDBURY -- Officials at Public Health Sudbury & Districts say they’ve seen an overwhelming response to the number of people in the last week who have gotten their Hepatitis A vaccine.
"Things have been busy last week, but activity has started to taper down this week. We’ve seen over 2,000 individuals come into our health unit for vaccinations, and about 1,600 have been adults and the rest have been children," said Dr. Ariella Zbar, associate medical officer of health.
The vaccines were made available after a food handler at the Real Canadian Superstore in New Sudbury contracted the virus.
The deli meat and cheese in question would have been prepared somewhere between Nov. 27 and Dec. 16.
Dr. Zbar says it’s been incredibly busy given the amount of holiday platters and trays that were sold.
"We certainly saw a few children dressed up and coming from their Christmas concerts or other events having eaten platters at large gatherings," said Dr. Zbar.
Hepatitis A is a virus that infects and inflames the liver.
Dr. Zbar says in most people it’ll come and go, but in others it can lead to jaundice and even death.
It’s spread through the fecal/oral route and can contaminate food if someone hasn’t properly washed their hands.
Once they learned of the diagnosis in Sudbury, Public Health issued an advisory and initiated its incident management system so it could coordinate its response with organizations.
Dr. Zbar says it was all-hands-on-deck as they issued the advisory and provided a first dose to those affected free of charge.
So far, there have been no secondary cases reported in the region.
"We do recommend that if you think you’ve eaten it, a product purchased during that window period, and it was within the last 14 days, we do recommend that you come in for the vaccine. Hepatitis A vaccine is also recommended in other situations for certain high-risk individuals, as well as people who travel to overseas locations," said Dr. Zbar.
Health officials are asking people to watch for symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
"We see it fairly often from people who are returning from other countries, where it’s just known to happen a lot. That’s why we encourage vaccination before you go travelling, that’s it's known to happen. In terms of foodborne outbreaks, foodborne exposures like this, it doesn’t happen very often,” Dr. Zbar said.
She added norovirus is more common around this time of year.
The vaccine will be offered to those affected until Dec. 30.
Sudbury's public health office will be closed for Christmas and Boxing Day, so if you find yourself in urgent need of a shot, you’re being encouraged to call the public health hotline.
