Another Hawaii food service worker has tested positive for hepatitis A, according to the Hawaii Department of Health (DOH) Thursday.

Image/Nick Roux, updated by Peter Fitzgerald
Image/Nick Roux, updated by Peter Fitzgerald

On the island of Oahu, an employee at Ohana Seafood, the seafood vendor located within the Sam’s Club warehouse store at 1000 Kamehameha Highway, Pearl City tested positive for the contagious virus.

Food handled by the Ohana employee may have been sold from August 29 to September 11, 2016.

“We expect to continue seeing new cases of hepatitis A infection through at least early October because of the long incubation period for this illness, even though the source of the outbreak has been identified as contaminated scallops,” said State Epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Park. “While this case involves a food handler working with raw seafood, the food handler is another victim, and none of the products sold by Ohana Seafood at Sam’s Club have been identified as a source of the ongoing outbreak.”

As with previous cases of food handlers who have tested positive for hepatitis A, DOH is providing this information to the public as a precaution in an attempt to prevent any new cases. The likelihood that patrons of this business will become infected is very low. To date, DOH has confirmed a total of 271 cases of hepatitis A as part of this outbreak investigation.

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