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An employee at the Mama Sbarro Pizzeria in Hicksville, NY was found to have typhoid fever, which made Nassau County officials issue a health advisory on Saturday for anybody who had eaten there.
The name of the worker has not been released. “We don’t know how he got it. We do know, though, that most cases get it from foreign travel to underdeveloped countries,” Nassau County Department of Health representative Cynthia Brown said, according to the New York Times. The man was treated at a hospital and released last week and is now undergoing treatment with antibiotic drugs, authorities said.
Typhoid fever symptoms include fever, headache, diarrhea and rose-colored spots on the torso. The disease is treated with antibiotics. The disease is transmitted by the fecal-oral route – the ingestion of food or water contaminated with feces from an infected person. The disease can be avoided by washing hands before and after handling food and using the toilet.
Customers who ate at the Hicksville pizzeria on March 14, 15 and 16 – when the infected employee last worked – have a “low risk” of contracting the rare intestinal infection, the Health Department said. Anyone presenting the typhoid fever’s symptoms was urged to contact a health care provider. The fever can take up to one week to show symptoms.
The Nassau health officials underlined that the pizzeria had passed two inspections since Friday evening when the county was informed of the kitchen worker’s condition. The pizzeria proved to have no major health violations in the last two years and would remain open because it was safe to eat there.
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