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Pizzeria worker contracts typhoid
March 23, 2008
HICKSVILLE, N.Y. — A worker at a Hicksville, N.Y., pizzeria has contracted typhoid fever, putting more than 100 customers at risk, according to the Nassau County Department of Health.
Customers who ate at Mama Sbarro's at 265 Broadway in Hicksville on March 14, 15 and 16 — when the infected employee last worked — have a "low risk" of contracting the rare intestinal infection, the Health Department said.
The department said Mama Sbarro's had passed two inspections since the evening of March 21, when the county was informed of the kitchen worker's condition. The restaurant, which did not know the employee had typhoid fever until March 23, had no major health violations in the last two years and would remain open, authorities said, because it was safe to eat there.
Cynthia Brown, a spokeswoman for the county Health Department, said current customers are not at risk.
Brown said the infected kitchen worker told authorities that he always wore gloves while handling food, making it unlikely that the disease was transmitted. Also, the restaurant's employees were seen wearing gloves when preparing food during unannounced visits, she said.
"We're hopeful that this is an isolated instance," said Stuart Steinberg, general counsel to the Long Island-based pizza chain Sbarro's, the parent company of Mama Sbarro's.
Authorities identified the kitchen worker only as a New York City man. He worked without symptoms on March 14 and 15, and had some symptoms on March 16, authorities said. He called in sick on March 17, Steinberg said.
Typhoid is a bacterial infection transmitted by eating food or drinking water containing infected feces or urine. It is rare in developed countries.
Symptoms include fever, headache, constipation or diarrhea, rose-colored spots on the torso and an enlarged spleen and liver. Symptoms generally appear one to three weeks after exposure and cases can be treated with specific antibiotics. The fatality rate for those who don't receive antibiotic treatment is about 20 percent, Steier said, and less than 1 percent for those who do take antibiotics.
There are about 400 cases of typhoid fever annually nationwide. Nassau has averaged between two and seven cases per year since 2003. About 75 percent of the time, the infected person contracted the disease while visiting a developing country as a tourist, Steier said.
Steinberg estimated that more than 100 people ate at the restaurant from March 14 to 16.
The disease may have been passed to the kitchen worker from relatives visiting from overseas, authorities said, though they would not say from what country or when the relatives visited.
The man was treated at a hospital and released last week and is undergoing treatment with antibiotic drugs, authorities said. He will be monitored by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for three months.
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