Hepatitis A Cases Rise to 23 in Virginia, Linked to Tropical Smoothie Cafe

The number of people in Virginia who have contracted hepatitis A has now risen to 23, after they consumed tainted strawberries from Tropical Smoothie Cafes in the Commonwealth, the Virginia Department of Health said Wednesday.

Individuals who consumed a smoothie from a Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Virginia, on Aug. 5, 6, 7 or 8 may still benefit from vaccine or immune globulin to prevent hepatitis A, according to the health department. The smoothies were made with frozen strawberries from Egypt that were tainted, health officials said. Tropical Smoothie Cafe immediately pulled the strawberries from its restaurants.

With 23 cases of hepatitis A now reported in Virginia, that's an additional six cases since the last report this week from the health department; of those six new cases, three were reported in Virginia's Northern health district, which includes Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax County, Loudoun County and Prince William County.

Tropical Smoothie Cafe has many locations in the Northern Virginia area, including in Ashburn, Reston, Oakton, Dunn Loring, Falls Church, Arlington, Alexandria, Leesburg and Fredericksburg.

That brings the total number of cases in the Northern Virginia suburbs to seven.

Here's the breakdown for the locations of the 23 cases, across the Commonwealth's health districts:

• Northern: 7
• Northwest: 4
• Eastern: 8
• Central: 4
• Southwest: 0

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration has issued a statement about the health warning in Virginia, announcing its vigilance of imported berries: “Protecting public health is the FDA’s top priority. The FDA is working with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the Virginia Department of Health to investigate this outbreak. The FDA has initiated increased surveillance of imported berries and will provide more information as it becomes available.”

Egypt exports about 40 million tons of fresh and frozen strawberries to 30 countries around the globe, according to Food Safety News.

Egypt’s Ministry of Agriculture is investigating the possibility that strawberries being exported to the United States are contaminated with hepatitis A, the trade news media outlet reported, saying that so far, Egypt is taking random samples of strawberries, but has not found any sign of the virus.

Read more here about hepatitis A from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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