More than a thousand people were expected to be vaccinated after a Hepatitis A scare in Williamsville. On Friday, a producer handler at a Wegmans supermarket was diagnosed with hepatitis A, which prompted Erie County health officials to issue an emergency public health alert.

Dr. Anthony Billittier IV, County health commissioner urged any unvaccinated resident who purchased produce from the store at 5275 Sheridan Drive after January 7 and ate it raw since January 26 to receive one of two treatments offered at a county health clinic.

“This is purely preventive. We do not have an outbreak of hepatitis A. What we have is one person who had hepatitis A. This is more of a preventive measure,” he said quoted by the Newsday.

Hepatitis A (HAV) is a highly contagious disease that attacks the liver. It is the most common type of hepatitis reported in the US. Symptoms are flu-like and include low grade fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness, vomiting and diarrhea. While it can cause swelling of the liver, it doesn't normally cause permanent liver damage. Almost everyone who gets hepatitis-A gets better on their own, but a shot is available for short-term prevention of hepatitis-A in individuals of all ages.

“The transmission of the Hepatitis A virus is what we call 'fecal-oral.' It basically starts with someone who has the infection. Very often they have diarrhea and if they don't wash their hands adequately and then somehow touch something that somebody else puts into their mouth,” Billittier said.

Wegmans removed potentially affected produce on Friday and then voluntarily removed potentially affected store, “immediately contacted” Billittier and then voluntarily removed potentially affected produce from shelves and was in the process of sanitizing the produce area.

The clinics at the Erie Community College north campus cafeteria were open for vaccination from 4 p.m. to midnight Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday. No other cases of hepatitis A have been reported in either the Buffalo or Rochester area.