By Zoe Graves, Cheryl Knorp & Hannah Zalewski
North Pointe
Grosse Pointe North HS
1st Place
Division 2, News Writing
Environmental, Health or Science
For the past few months, San Diego has been in the news for the large outbreak of Hepatitis A that has been attacking the city. Lesser publicized is the equally large outbreak affecting Detroit, which has even managed to penetrate the bubble of Grosse Pointe.
Two well-known restaurants in GP—Uncle Paul’s Pizza and Cabbage Patch Cafe & Catering—were contaminated with the Hepatitis A virus between Aug. 1 and Sept. 29. The restaraunts shared an employee who spread the virus to food. Both restaurants closed temporarily, and management worked closely with the Wayne County Health Department to ensure the future safety of patrons.
Dr. Ruta Sharangpani, who works for the Wayne County Health Department, suggested that both restaurants dispose of all food made before Sept. 29 and complete a meticulous cleaning of their equipment to prevent further spread of the virus.
“Unfortunately (after an issue like this), it does take some time for people to go back. We do our best to assure people that were working with the restaurants, and we don’t like closing places unless we have to or asking them to close it,” Sharangpani said.“It does take some time to build that reputation back, and often they do well after because they work very closely with us like ‘OK, these are things that you can do better in the future and avoid these types of things.’”
According to Sharangpani, Hepatitis A is initially hard to diagnose because of its lack of early symptoms and similarities to the flu. It can take anywhere from 15-50 days for symptoms to appear in a person, and younger people—especially teens and young children—can be asymptomatic.
Senior Stephanie Schaefer is a fan of Uncle Paul’s Pizza and said that when she initially heard about the outbreak, she was glad that she hadn’t eaten there recently.
“I probably won’t go there anytime soon. Other people said they are fine, but it’s really unfortunate what happened,” Schaefer said. “I’m sure (the employee who was sick) didn’t have any bad intentions, but still you have to report stuff like that. You can never be too careful when you’re sick because it hurts other people.”
The best way to avoid getting Hepatitis A is to take the normal precautions against getting sick in general—washing your hands before you prepare or eat any food and staying home from work or school while sick.
Sharangpani also recommended getting the Hepatitis A vaccine, which is 90-95 percent effective. Senior Rebecca Alway has never eaten at either Uncle Paul’s Pizza or Cabbage Patch Cafe but said that this will definitely affect her going there in the future.
“Stuff like that just like grosses me out, and is kind of weird. And I don’t eat there anyway, so I have other options I’d rather go to,” Alway said. She said she believes it will affect their business. “I mean, I know they’re going to get everything taken care of, but still that being in people’s minds. I think is going to be a little bit unsettling. I don’t think people are going to get over that so quickly. I feel bad about that but like I think it’s just gonna happen.”