The number of hepatitis cases contracted from strawberry smoothies at Topical Smoothie Cafes across Virginia nearly doubled Wednesday.
The Virginia Department of Health confirmed Wednesday that 23 cases of hepatitis A are directly linked to frozen strawberries from Egypt delivered to all 90 Tropical Smoothie Cafe locations across the state. Cases are cropping up in all parts of Virginia, including eight in the eastern region, seven in the northern region and four in the central region, reports WTKR.
Authorities say individuals who had a strawberry drink from any Tropical Smoothie Cafe between Aug. 5 and Aug. 8 are at the highest risk of infection, but warned that anyone who had a strawberry drink there in the last 50 days is at risk. Symptoms of hepatitis A include yellowing of the skin and eyes, fever, vomiting, fatigue and loss of appetite.
“Our cafes and their food handling practices have not been implicated in any way – the health department believes this is a single product issue sourced from Egypt,” read a statement from Tropical Smoothie Cafe. “Egyptian strawberries represent a fraction of our overall strawberries purchased, and were predominantly distributed to stores in the Virginia market.”
The company destroyed the tainted shipment of Egyptian strawberries Aug. 7 and said they voluntarily pulled all recent strawberry shipments in all their locations, including cafes outside of Virginia. Symptoms can show at any point between 15 to 50 days after exposure, so it is likely the number of victims will rise.
An unidentified woman from Woodbridge spent four days in the hospital after contracting the illness.
“I didn’t feel like I was going to live through the night,” the woman told WUSA9. “I don’t remember my first full day in the hospital. I was just so out of it.”
The CEO of Tropical Smoothie Cafe released an apology video for the outbreak to Facebook.
“I sincerely apologize for any issues that this may have caused for our customers,” CEO Mike Rotondo said in the video. “Your health and your safety is our top priority. We want you to have confidence that we source high quality products so that you’ll come back and visit us very soon.”
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