By Marie Szaniszlo
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
Boston cab drivers lashed out yesterday at the Taxi Pool Cafe at Logan International Airport for failing to notify them that one of its employees had hepatitis A.
Drivers who stopped by the restaurant over the weekend found “closed for renovations” signs on the doors, but no mention that a worker there had contracted the disease.
“We believe we were deliberately mislead by the proprietor, and I think that’s disgraceful,” said David Sandberg, an Independent Taxi Association driver.
The cafe remained closed yesterday and the owner, Kailua Royal Hawaiian Inc., could not be reached for comment.
Several cabbies have also complained about conditions in the restaurant’s bathrooms, including a lack of soap. Hepatitis A is usually spread when people don’t wash their hands properly after using the toilet, and then touch their mouths or prepare food for someone else.
The commission announced the case Sunday, and is recommending that up to 3,000 cabbies who ate at the restaurant from June 30 to July 4 receive an injection of immune globulin between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. tomorrow, or between 3 and 10 p.m. Thursday in the airport’s taxi pool lot.
