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Global Gaming Expo
attendees warned of hepatitis-A exposure
Health officials in Nevada warned Friday that as many as
25,000 people who attended a Las Vegas gambling industry
convention this month might have been exposed to a a
virus that causes a serious, though rarely fatal, liver
disease.
A sales representative at a booth where free ice cream
was handed out became sick with hepatitis A after
returning home from the Global Gaming Expo, officials
with the Clark County Health District and
Minnesota-based Schwan Food Company said.
Gambling executives, casino representatives and product
manufacturers from 50 states and 20 countries attended
the expo Sept. 13-15 at the Las Vegas Convention Center,
according to conference sponsor, the American Gaming
Association.
Schwan and Clark County health officials said Friday
that there was no evidence the free ice cream handed out
at the expo was tainted.
"It's important to make clear the individual was the
exposure, not the product," said Lawrence Sands,
community health director for the Las Vegas-based health
district.
However, Sands said the man, who was not identified, was
at the most infectious stage of the illness at the
convention.
Sands said Clark County health officials were notified
of the case late Thursday by their counterparts at the
Tri-County Health Department near Denver.
Dr. Richard Vogt, director of the health department that
serves Colorado's Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties,
said the man in his early 40s was recovering at home in
Douglas County. He said he could not further identify
the man for health care privacy reasons.
Vogt said health investigators did not believe the man
had contact with many people in his community after
becoming ill. But a family member was given immune
globulin and vaccine as a precaution.
Hepatitis A is a viral infection of the liver that can
cause jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain, loss of
appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and fever. The
virus most often is spread through fecal-oral contact,
such as touching hand to mouth after using the bathroom
or shaking the hands of infected people who did not wash
properly.
Those infected usually develop symptoms 15 to 50 days
after exposure to the virus.
"Most people feel very sick," Sands said, adding that
the virus can be fatal to some people with immune system
disorders or liver disease.
The virus is not passed through the air, and not
everyone exposed to the virus becomes infected.
Although there is no treatment for hepatitis A, symptoms
can be prevented if a person exposed to the virus
receives gamma globulin within 14 days.
The 14 days, however,
are nearly up.
Sands advised people who got free ice cream to at the
Schwan's booth to contact their local health department
or physician.
The Clark County Health Division planned to provide free
gamma globulin and hepatitis A vaccine clinics Saturday
and Sunday in Las Vegas.
The American Gaming Association was issuing a health
warning by e-mail to registered conference attendees,
said Holly Thomsen, spokeswoman for the association in
Washington, D.C.
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By KEN RITTER
Associated Press Writer
Originally published on
Gambling911.com September 25, 2005 1:00 am EST
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