More than 450 diners and employees at swanky Cafe Pinot have received shots to combat hepatitis A after workers at the downtown Los Angeles eatery contracted the disease.
A customer and five employees have been diagnosed with hepatitis A, county health officials said Wednesday, as they continued to track a puzzling outbreak of the virus over the last few months.
There have been 214 confirmed cases in Los Angeles County since August, compared with 52 cases between January and July.
The county Department of Health Services on Friday urged patrons of Cafe Pinot who dined there between Nov. 25 and Dec. 4 to contact their doctors for injections of antibodies to prevent infection.
A Pinot spokeswoman said business was down about 30% over the weekend but that it was picking up. The restaurant, located next to the Central Library, had 135 reservations Wednesday night, said Julie Priceman, a spokeswoman for chef Joachim Splichal and his Patina Group, which owns Cafe Pinot and several other well-known downtown restaurants.
Using phone numbers provided for reservations, Pinot officials called 1,000 patrons who might have been infected by the virus. Other patrons -- some from as far away as Boston and New York -- called a hotline established by the restaurant to answer questions about the outbreak.
Cafe Pinot marks the fourth known outbreak since August. One took place at an unidentified downtown Los Angeles restaurant and affected 13 people. Another occurred after an event catered by a Hollywood company, at which 19 fell ill. The remaining cases were scattered. Officials have linked some of the hepatitis cases to contaminated lettuce and urged residents to thoroughly clean even pre-washed lettuce.
Hepatitis A is caused by a virus and spread by close contact with an infected person or by eating food or drinking liquid contaminated by the virus. Symptoms include fever, chills, aches, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, dark urine and jaundice.
Outbreaks are difficult to track because the disease has a two- to eight-week incubation period. Officials aren't sure if the Pinot patron who tested positive for hepatitis A contracted it at that restaurant.
Health officials said they were still trying to determine the source of the outbreaks.
