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American Morning
'House Call'
Aired November 17, 2003 - 09:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In western Pennsylvania, hundreds of people who are infected with hepatitis A are being interviewed by investigators. Officials are trying to trace the source of that virus that has caused the widespread outbreak, and claimed three lives.
With us this morning from the CNN Center, latest on this medical mystery is Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Hey, Sanjay, good morning. Nice to see you.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Why do you think it's so hard to trace this viral outbreak?
GUPTA: Well, it's unclear exactly where it's coming from at this point. A virus is a very difficult thing to detect sometimes. And this case really one of two sources. Either I think it's poor hygiene on the part of the workers there. Interesting that this Chi-Chi's restaurant that so much attention has been focused on, eleven of the workers there now testing positive for hepatitis A. Quite simply the route of transmission is from poor hygiene in those situations from the workers actually contaminating food. That's one possibility.
The other possibility, as you just mentioned, Soledad, as well, is possibly the food itself. Could the food, in this case specifically scallions or green onions, been contaminated at some point from the point where they were picked to the point where they actually end up on the restaurant table. That's a possibility, as well. That was the cause, probably of one of the other outbreaks recently, earlier this fall, in the southern part of the country. So it's sort of a difficult thing.
By the way, they may never know, really, what exactly caused the outbreak. At this point, you've got 510 people infected, you've got about 9,000 people who are getting shots to prevent them from getting sick, and you could still see the numbers grow. Because what happens is, even if the people get infected at the restaurant, they could transmit it secondarily to family members or friends -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: How do you know -- and relatively quickly, Sanjay -- how do you know if you have hepatitis A? What does it do to you? How does it manifest itself?
GUPTA: Right, most people won't know even know maybe that they even had it. Some people could have such mild symptoms. There are some symptoms, though, to look out for. We have a description of those, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, fever and jaundice, which just means yellowing of the skin and yellowing of the eyes. But most people do recover very well. There have been three deaths here. But that's actually more the exception rather than the rule -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay Gupta from Atlanta. Thanks, Sanjay.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 17, 2003 - 09:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In western Pennsylvania, hundreds of people who are infected with hepatitis A are being interviewed by investigators. Officials are trying to trace the source of that virus that has caused the widespread outbreak, and claimed three lives.
With us this morning from the CNN Center, latest on this medical mystery is Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Hey, Sanjay, good morning. Nice to see you.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Why do you think it's so hard to trace this viral outbreak?
GUPTA: Well, it's unclear exactly where it's coming from at this point. A virus is a very difficult thing to detect sometimes. And this case really one of two sources. Either I think it's poor hygiene on the part of the workers there. Interesting that this Chi-Chi's restaurant that so much attention has been focused on, eleven of the workers there now testing positive for hepatitis A. Quite simply the route of transmission is from poor hygiene in those situations from the workers actually contaminating food. That's one possibility.
The other possibility, as you just mentioned, Soledad, as well, is possibly the food itself. Could the food, in this case specifically scallions or green onions, been contaminated at some point from the point where they were picked to the point where they actually end up on the restaurant table. That's a possibility, as well. That was the cause, probably of one of the other outbreaks recently, earlier this fall, in the southern part of the country. So it's sort of a difficult thing.
By the way, they may never know, really, what exactly caused the outbreak. At this point, you've got 510 people infected, you've got about 9,000 people who are getting shots to prevent them from getting sick, and you could still see the numbers grow. Because what happens is, even if the people get infected at the restaurant, they could transmit it secondarily to family members or friends -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: How do you know -- and relatively quickly, Sanjay -- how do you know if you have hepatitis A? What does it do to you? How does it manifest itself?
GUPTA: Right, most people won't know even know maybe that they even had it. Some people could have such mild symptoms. There are some symptoms, though, to look out for. We have a description of those, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, fever and jaundice, which just means yellowing of the skin and yellowing of the eyes. But most people do recover very well. There have been three deaths here. But that's actually more the exception rather than the rule -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay Gupta from Atlanta. Thanks, Sanjay.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
