Monday, Sept. 26, 2005 | 10:01 a.m.
Clark County health officials over the weekend gave shots to 166 people to protect them against hepatitis A, but they are still hoping to reach the rest of the approximately 1,000 people they believe were exposed to the potentially deadly virus at a Las Vegas convention earlier this month.
And they are racing against time.
Gamma globulin shots and hepatitis A vaccinations won't prevent the spread of the virus after Wednesday, health officials said.
Colorado health officials informed the Clark County Health District on Thursday that a man who attended the Global Gaming Expo conference with its 26,000 delegates was diagnosed with hepatitis A after returning home. He had served ice cream at the Schwan's Food Service booth, said Jennifer Sizemore, spokeswoman for the Clark County Health District.
The Health District has a "window of opportunity" to protect the estimated 1,000 people who were served ice cream at the conference because the chances to stop further spread of the virus with the preventative shots ends on Wednesday, two weeks after the expo ended, Sizemore said.
A dozen people were lined up at the Ravenholt Public Health Center at 625 Shadow Lane near University Medical Center at 8:30 a.m. Saturday to receive their shots.
Gaming book author Carolyn Donley said she had not eaten anything at the gaming expo's food court on the first day of the event.
"But on the second day we decided to try some ice cream," Donley lamented.
She said the lesson is that "you play Russian roulette every time you put something in your mouth."
Not wishing to take any chances, Donley got a gamma globulin shot, which protects against hepatitis A virus for up to three months, and a hepatitis A vaccine.
Hepatitis A is a virus that can infect a person for up to 30 days without symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. But a person infected with the virus can spread it before developing symptoms, Sizemore said.
The Colorado man sought medical help for another condition, not related to the hepatitis A, she said.
The Global Gaming Expo ran from Sept. 13 to Sept. 15, and the man demonstrating a new ice cream dispenser had manned the booth for the first two days, Sizemore said.
Although the ice cream was not suspected in the spread of the virus, contact with the individual passing out the treat could infect other people, Sizemore said.
The Health District does not require food handlers to wear gloves, but urges those dishing out treats to wash their hands frequently, she said.
Since hepatitis A is a disease reported to the CDC, the notification by Colorado's health officials allowed the Clark County Health District to begin an inoculation program immediately, Sizemore said.
Of the 1,000 people potentially exposed to the virus, between 300 and 400 individuals may have come from Southern Nevada. The rest came from other states and up to 90 foreign countries, according to information from Schwan's provided to the Health District.
Once Health District officials received word of the hepatitis A case, they began trying to contact those potentially affected, Sizemore said.
Schwan's, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor's Authority and hotels involved with the conference all cooperated with the Health District in gathering contact information and helping to get the word out, she said.
Bonnie Sorenson of the Health District's Nursing Division said that officials began phoning, e-mailing and faxing people.
However, fewer than 50 percent of the local expo attendees and less than 70 percent of those from out of state had acknowledged receiving the message by late Friday, Sorenson said.
The hepatitis A clinic was announced in newspapers, television and radio messages sent out Friday.
The weekend immunization clinics provided the shots to 98 Global Gaming Expo attendees Saturday and another 68 Sunday, Sizemore said.
The clinic will also be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday.
Anyone who has had hepatitis A or has been vaccinated for the virus is immune and not at risk for getting the disease, Sizemore said.
The virus is not passed from person to person through the air.
In the Global Gaming Expo case, a person is most at risk for becoming infected if they ate the food product handled by the infected person.
The virus is spread through fecal matter and can jump from person to person if infected people fail to wash their hands.
Not everyone who is exposed to the virus becomes infected. However, it is not possible to predict who or how many people will develop the illness.
Hepatitis A is a disease caused by a virus that inflames the liver. Initially, an infected person usually runs a fever, loses appetite, suffers nausea, vomiting and malaise. These symptoms are usually followed by dark colored urine and yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes, known as jaundice.
Two to three people in 1,000 with the disease can die from the virus.
While the illness can be serious, most people feel better after one or two weeks.
For more information on hepatitis A, or the circumstances for exposure at the Las Vegas conference, call (702) 759-1300 and press option No. 5.
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