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December 3, 2009

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Food handlers must now get vaccinated for hepatitis A

Thursday, Nov. 11, 1999 | 12:30 p.m.

The Clark County Health District on Monday will begin requiring food handlers to get vaccinated against hepatitis A.

To finance that project in the wake of the liver disease locally being three times the national average -- 34 cases per 100,000 population in 1997 -- the health district will discontinue tuberculosis tests for food workers on Monday.

"We felt that with so many cases of hepatitis A our money would be better spent on the vaccine for hepatitis A than on testing for TB," Health District Environmental Health Supervisor Felix Havis said.

He said the project also would be funded by food handlers renewing their health cards every three years for $30 instead of every two years for $10, which also begins Monday.

"By allowing a longer time for the card it will cut down on administrative costs," Havis said. "It also will help support the costs of the vaccinations."

Tuberculosis tests will continue for schoolteachers and adult and child care workers, because they have a much closer contact with the people they serve.

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