Officials investigate possible hepatitis A outbreak in Slayton

(AP) - A pizza restaurant remained closed Thursday as workers were tested for hepatitis A.

Two food workers at the Pizza Ranch restaurant tested positive earlier for the disease, and the Minnesota Department of Health is investigating whether it has spread. No additional cases were immediately confirmed, department spokesman Doug Schultz said.

People who ate at the restaurant between April 9 and this Tuesday may have been exposed. The restaurant, which serves between 800 to 1,000 meals per week, closed voluntarily on Tuesday as a precaution.

Hepatitis A is an infection of the liver caused by the hepatitis A virus. It is not chronic, but can lead to a severe liver disease in rare cases.

Symptoms in adults include headache, fever, fatigue, loss of appetite and nausea. Dark-colored urine, light-colored feces and yellowing of the eyes or skin may appear a few days later. Young children generally do not have symptoms.

Most people who have hepatitis A recover on their own but may need several days of rest.

Lyon, Lincoln, Murray and Pipestone County Public Health Services scheduled a mass immunization clinic to provide immune globulin to people who ate at the Pizza Ranch or at events catered by that restaurant.

If administered within 14 days of exposure, immune globulin can protect against the infection. People exposed prior to April 20 would no longer benefit from immune globulin.

The clinic was to operate Friday from noon to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at a 4-H building on the Murray County Fairgrounds.

Meanwhile, the Health Department set up a hotline to answer questions about hepatitis A and the clinic: (800) 657-3903 or (651) 201-3920.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)