Hepatitis has been confirmed in an 84-year old Snyder woman, but Snyder health officials said the public is not in danger.
According to the woman’s husband, she was admitted to Cogdell Memorial Hospital with respiratory problems and likely arrived with hepatitis A. Tests found high levels of potassium, he said.
“That could have stopped her heart and kidney failure. I was concerned she wasn’t going to live past Saturday,” he wrote in a text message to the Snyder Daily News.
The Scurry County Health Unit confirmed the diagnosis Wednesday afternoon and said it was treating the case as an isolated incident.
Health unit director Dana Hartman said she has not talked to the woman and an investigation is underway at locations where she ate. Three of the known locations were the hospital, Skeet’s Texas Grill and Whataburger.
Wednesday afternoon the health department was at Skeet’s performing an inspection. The door of the restaurant had a sign stating it was closed for training Tuesday afternoon, but today a sign stated the restaurant was closed for construction. Hartman said the business being closed for construction is not related to the hepatitis A investigation, but was related to other issues raised during the inspection.
The restaurant’s owners are in the process of correcting those issues and will be reinspected by the health department before re-opening.
“The Skeet’s staff was fully cooperative during the inspection,” Hartman said, adding the inspection related to the hepatitis A case has not been completed.
The hospital was inspected Tuesday as well and passed, Hartman said. Whataburger was scheduled to be inspected today.
The husband said his wife was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 8 after visiting the emergency room. She was transferred to Covenant Medical Center in Lubbock on Feb. 17.
Hartman said people should use “universal precautions,” including washing hands, when eating out. She added that people who have eaten at the restaurants recently do not need to be tested for the disease.
Hepatitis A, which is common, is a contagious liver infection caused by the hepatitis A virus. The virus is one of several types of hepatitis viruses that cause inflammation and affect the liver’s ability to function.
People are most likely to contract hepatitis A from contaminated food or water or from close contact with someone who is infected. Mild cases of hepatitis A don’t require treatment, and most people who are infected recover completely with no permanent liver damage.
Hepatitis A signs and symptoms, which typically don’t appear until a person has had the virus for a few weeks, may include fatigue, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain or discomfort, especially in the area of the liver on the right side of the body beneath the lower ribs, clay-colored bowel movements, loss of appetite, low-grade fever, dark urine, joint pain and yellowing of the skin and eyes.