Thursday, July 15, 2004
By Christopher Snowbeck, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The state Department of Health is asking Chi-Chi’s Inc. to pay more than $146,000 to cover costs the state incurred providing preventive shots during last fall’s hepatitis A outbreak at the chain’s Beaver Valley Mall restaurant.
In a court filing last week, the state said it provided shots of immune globulin to about 10,000 people potentially infected with hepatitis A as a result of the outbreak, the worst such event at a U.S. restaurant in history. The antibody treatment provides protection to people exposed to the virus in the past 14 days.
People who ate at the Beaver Valley Mall Chi-Chi’s between October 22 and November 2 were eligible, and a state clinic at the Beaver County Community College drew huge crowds for several days in November.
The filing came in U.S. Bankruptcy Court because Chi-Chi’s filed for bankruptcy court protection several weeks prior to the outbreak’s discovery.
The Health Department says its actions likely limited the number of people sickened with hepatitis A and, as a result, limited potential liability for Chi-Chi’s. The state is not seeking to recover the costs of notifying the public about the outbreak, nor is it seeking to recover costs for staffing clinics, according to the filing.
A spokeswoman for Chi-Chi’s did not immediately return a call for comment.
Bill Marler, a Seattle attorney representing the state, said at least one other restaurant at the center of an outbreak have covered the costs of immune globulin shots.
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(Christopher Snowbeck can be reached at csnowbeck@post-gazette.com or 412 263-2625.)
