Who doesn’t like to go to their favorite restaurant for a meal?

I have family in Arizona who meet and eat with friends, once a week at the same restaurant for breakfast. Sometimes it’s only a few and other times the number approaches a dozen. On my last couple of trips back to visit, I was glad to join them for their weekly breakfast gathering. It gave me a chance to catch up with some family members that I hadn’t seen in years. It was a joyous time and the food was pretty good too.

For many years, my wife and I could not afford to eat out at a restaurant, but over the past few years, we have been able to afford it and have several favorite places. Once a month on our way home from church, we like to stop and eat at a British-Scottish-Irish place. My wife loves their shepherds pie and I like their one burger made with their own cheese combination. It’s actually the best burger in the area.

When out shopping there was a favorite oriental buffet we enjoyed, but they lost their lease and had to close.

The only times any of us got sick from eating out was when we had chicken from a nationally known fried chicken chain and once from a fast-food burger chain.

However, I did get quite ill from eating at a cafeteria that was in the large retail store where I was a member of the management team. One day I began to feel nauseous and eventually vomited. What struck me was that what I vomited were easily identifiable pieces of the dinner I had the night before. This continued to happen for several days, so I ended up going to the doctor.

After blood tests, it was discovered that I had contacted hepatitis A. Further investigation led to the discovery that one of the girls that worked in the cafeteria had a mild case of hepatitis A, but not bad enough for her to stay home or see a doctor. It turned out that I was one of three other store employees that got hepatis A from the cafeteria worker, who didn’t follow proper health procedures. This was also the time before many restaurant workers used latex gloves.

Over the years, I’ve heard of other people who contracted hepatitis A from a food handler at some establishment.

It’s now reported that diners at a Cracker Barrel in West Virginia may also have been exposed to hepatitis A due to an employee who tested positive. Sometimes, the infected person doesn’t know they have hepatitis A because it doesn’t fully impact them or they continue to work while infected until the disease causes enough problems that prevents them from working.

Hepatitis A is highly contagious and it affects the liver. One of the symptoms is vomiting undigested food many hours after eating, as was my case. The whites of the eyes often get a yellowish hue along with the skin, due to the jaundice caused by the hepatitis A virus.

Hepatitis A has also become a major health problem in areas with many homeless people and drug addicts.

You just need to know that with hepatitis A becoming more prevalent in some areas, that every time you eat out, you are taking that risk. The risk is small, but it is real and you need to realize that when you sit down for your favorite restaurant meal.