MURRAY — Health authorities issued a hepatitis A exposure warning Wednesday to anyone who may have eaten any of approximately 600 products sold by Edible Arrangements in Murray between March 21 and April 13.

Only those who ate products from that store are at risk for exposure, said Salt Lake County Health Department spokesman Nicholas Rupp.

"This possible hepatitis A exposure occurred when an employee infected with hepatitis A worked while ill," Rupp wrote in a release.

Rupp estimates the business, located at 5211 S. State, "sold about 600 arrangements during this time."

Dr. Dagmar Vitek, medical director of the Salt Lake County Health Department, warned that because people "buy these edible arrangements usually as a gift or bring it to the party, probably the number of people who were exposed is much higher than the 600" paying customers.

Rupp said the worker's illness is linked to the hepatitis A outbreak in Utah, which has infected more than 200 people since last May and resulted in two deaths earlier this year.

Edible Arrangements — which sells decorative chocolate-dipped fruit, often made to resemble flower arrangements — is the fourth eatery along the Wasatch Front for which hepatitis A exposure warnings have been issued.

Store closure

The store was closed to customers Tuesday afternoon, and the Utah Department of Agriculture, the permitting agency for the business, "will supervise its sanitation before reopening," Rupp said.

Richard Beckstrand, manufactured food program manager for the Department of Agriculture, said the store will remain closed for "probably several days at least."

Acting on a complaint received and passed along by the Salt Lake County Health Department that one of the employees at Edible Arrangements had jaundice, Department of Agriculture inspectors visited the business Monday, according to Beckstrand.

"It looked like we were going to be able to get that place cleaned and sanitized while it was still open," he said. "(But) the next morning we got a little more information about the seriousness of the illness."

Upon learning the ill employee had hepatitis A, "we erred on the side of caution, so that anything we felt could have been contaminated, could have been touched by the case patient, was destroyed," according to Beckstrand.

The Edible Arrangements store released a statement Wednesday in response to the warning that was issued to customers.

"We have been advised by the Salt Lake County Health Department that an employee at our store has been diagnosed with hepatitis A. The employee reported being ill and was immediately sent to seek medical attention," the statement says.

"The employee has not returned to work and we are cooperating fully with the Salt Lake County Health Department, as the health and well-being of all associates and customers is our top priority."

Beckstrand wouldn't rule out the possibility of citations against the business, saying "when someone's got jaundice, (the company's) responsibility based on Utah law and federal law is to exclude that person and make a report to us that they've excluded an employee who is sick and (has) jaundice."

"They failed in that respect," Beckstrand said, but their case "might be mitigated" by the fact that the worker previously had a doctor's note stating their condition was not contagious.

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"The management was kind of depending on that (doctor's note)," he said. "We'll take that all into consideration."

Beckstrand also said Edible Arrangements was being "very cooperative," adding "that goes in their favor."

Speaking in general terms, Rupp told KSL that a person can have several illnesses that give them jaundice that are not communicable, but that regulators want to receive reports about such employees so that the cause of the jaundice can be determined out of proper precaution.

Vitek said Wednesday that "the patient is actually doing OK at this time."

Resources for those affected

In February, the Salt Lake County Health Department began requiring hepatitis A vaccinations for all employees who handle food at any business where a co-worker has been exposed. Rupp confirmed that the county will "require all store employees to be vaccinated against hepatitis A before they return to work" at Edible Arrangements.

"We do not currently have any hepatitis A cases linked to this possible exposure at Edible Arrangements," Rupp said. "Because the incubation period for hepatitis A is two to seven weeks, we will not know for several weeks if anyone was infected from this possible exposure."

Rupp asked Edible Arrangements customers who may have been exposed to call 385-468-INFO (4636). Through at least Friday, that phone line will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., he said.

"Health department staff will screen callers for their exposure risk and, if they are eligible, provide them with options for receiving an injection to prevent hepatitis A," Rupp said.

He said 443 people had called to seek help by the end of Wednesday.

Where possible, the county has also proactively sent messages to affected customers who bought items at Edible Arrangements, Vitek said.

"We either call them or send them emails if we have that (contact) information," she said.

The hepatitis A vaccine is effective up to 14 days after exposure, Rupp said, but "it is too late for people who ate items from this location (purchased) between March 21 and April 3" to receive it.

"Those individuals should watch for symptoms of hepatitis A and see their health care provider if they feel ill," he said. "Symptoms of hepatitis A include low fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, and yellow skin and eyes."

Utah outbreak

Hepatitis A, an inflammation of the liver, has infected about 221 people in Utah since May 2017, according to the Utah Department of Health, including 154 people in Salt Lake County. The outbreak has led to 115 hospitalizations, and two Salt Lake County residents died of the disease this year.

The Utah outbreak had exhibited a particularly high incident rate among those who are homeless, use illicit drugs or who are or have recently been incarcerated. Of those infected, 87 individuals were homeless and actively using drugs at the time, the Utah Department of Health says.

Vitek said Wednesday that because of the delay associated with hepatitis A symptoms, it is difficult to know for certain whether the worst of the outbreak was over, but added there are encouraging signs that "it looks like maybe it is slowing down."

Salt Lake County's efforts to fight the outbreak have included administering more than 9,000 vaccinations, focusing on at-risk populations, Vitek has said.

The hepatitis A virus can spread through very small traces of an infected person's feces, making it easy to transmit via contaminated food. Second only to vaccination, the best way for a person to prevent infection is to wash their hands before eating or preparing food and after using the restroom, health authorities say.

The two-shot hepatitis A vaccine is more than 99 percent effective in preventing infection for 20 to 25 years and is the best way to ward off the illness, according to Rupp.

Rupp said any resident who is interested in receiving a vaccine can call 385-468-SHOT to make an appointment with the county for an immunization.

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