Parents Sue McDonald’s Over Son’s Hepatitis Infection

The parents of a teen who was hospitalized with hepatitis A after eating at a McDonald’s restaurant in Illinois where two workers have tested positive for the infectious liver disease have sued the restaurant chain.

Dillon Mrasak, 16, reportedly became ill with high fever, fatigue, and aches on July 12, weeks after eating at a McDonald’s in Milan, Ill., near the Illinois-Iowa border. He was hospitalized and later diagnosed with hepatitis A.

Health officials have said that two workers who handled food at the Milan McDonald’s tested positive for hepatitis A and had been allowed to keep working for weeks. At least 20 people in Illinois and Iowa have fallen ill with hepatitis A in an outbreak of the disease in the area, officials said. About 4,500 people have been vaccinated against Hepatitis A in the area and more than 10,000 people may have been exposed, according to health officials.

County health officials are still investigating the source of the local hepatitis A outbreak, which was first reported July 10. A worker at the Milan McDonald’s reportedly was hospitalized on June 16 and later diagnosed with hepatitis A but was allowed to continue working and serving customers at the restaurant on several days in June, according to news media reports.

Operators of the McDonald’s said they only learned of the outbreak when health department officials told him about it on July 13. The restaurant was closed on July 15 for extensive cleaning and reopened three days later, officials said.

Mrasak’s suit was filed July 23 in the Circuit Court of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit of Rock Island County, Illinois. A separate suit filed July 21 is seeking class-action status for people who were similarly injured by McDonald’s.

Hepatitis A is most commonly transmitted to people from food or water that is contaminated by fecal matter or by coming into close contact with an infected person. Improper hand washing by restaurant workers is a leading cause of hepatitis A transmission.

Unlike hepatitis B and C, hepatitis A does not lead to cirrhosis or chronic hepatitis, two potentially fatal conditions. It can take up to two months after contamination for symptoms of hepatitis A infection to appear.

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