Shalom leaders say they're taking extra precautions to prevent the virus from spreading. (Steve Burns, WFIU/WTIU News).
The Monroe County Health Department is urging people who recently ate at Shalom Community Center to get a Hepatitis A vaccine after it diagnosed someone who may have handled food with the highly-contagious liver infection.
Shalom provides several services to those experiencing homelessness or poverty, including daily meals.
The department says the person may have worked while ill between Dec. 13 and Dec. 24. It recommends anyone who ate at Shalom during that time get a vaccine, although it's rare for someone to get Hepatitis A from an infected food handler.
Executive Director Rev. Forrest Gilmore says he doesn't believe the person actually handled food, but they're approaching the situation with an abundance of caution. He says Shalom disinfected its kitchen following the diagnosis.
The center also recently implemented a more rigorous custodial process to prevent the virus from spreading.
"Those involve special cleaning protocols to make sure the places where people commonly can come in contact with Hep A are disinfected," Gilmore says. "So, doorknobs, toilets, any kind of exposure in the kitchen."
And, Shalom has a temporary moratorium on at-risk volunteers working in the kitchen, unless they can show proof they received a Hepatitis A vaccine.
Hepatitis A vaccines will be available at the Monroe County Public Health Clinic from 8:15 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. on Jan. 2. They will also be offered at Shalom from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jan. 4. Shalom previously hosted two other vaccine clinics.
Data from the Indiana State Department of Health shows 16 people have been diagnosed with Hepatitis A in Monroe County. The state is one of several experiencing an outbreak, and says there have been 835 cases since November 2017. Two people have died from Hepatitis A.
It can take weeks for Hepatitis A symptoms to manifest, and they're similar to the flu. The virus usually spreads when someone comes into contact with undetected amounts of stool from someone who is infected.
Certain groups are at higher risk of contracting the infection, including men who have sex with men, people who use illicit drugs, those experiencing homelessness, and people who were recently incarcerated.
