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Health department reports only small percentage of restaurant Hepatitis A cases

10Investigates has uncovered a whole new set Hep A investigations health officials didn’t report.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Since last fall, we’ve been reporting on Bay area restaurants and food service employees who’ve tested positive for Hepatitis A. 

One of the first we heard about was Hamburger Mary’s in Ybor City and since then, local health officials have identified numerous other cases.

But now, 10Investigates has uncovered a whole new set Hep A investigations the Department of Health didn’t report.

These are 19 additional cases uncovered through state public records showing a growing number of confirmed Hepatitis A cases in Bay area restaurants.

Most of these are employees who tested positive, but at least one was a customer who contracted Hepatitis A and believed she may have gotten it from a restaurant on Treasure Island.   

The record does not indicate if that was ever confirmed.

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So why is the health department issuing public notices for a few of these restaurants and not all of them?

In a statement from the Department of Health in Pinellas County, the agency says they only issue a notification where certain criteria are met including symptoms, job duties, who was exposed and how many, and other factors. 

“We don’t take these notifications lightly and do them only when it’s necessary for public health,” said Maggie Hall, spokesperson for the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County.

To give you an idea of how often we’re seeing Hep A in Bay area restaurants, last summer we were averaging one reported case a month in restaurants.  

By the second half of the year, that number jumped to three reported cases per month.

Now, just in the first four months of 2019 we’ve almost surpassed the total number of cases we had last year.

RELATED: By The Numbers: Florida's Hepatitis A outbreak

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The good news: most of these restaurants that have had a Hepatitis A case come up tell 10News they’ve gone ahead and taken the health department’s advice and gotten all of their employees vaccinated.  Once that happens, you’ve also eliminated the risk 

That means many of the restaurants listed may be among the safest in town.

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