Worker at Warren dough facility diagnosed with Hepatitis A

Staff report

WARREN

An employee of the Panera Bread Fresh Dough Facility on Elm Road owned by the Panera Bread Corp. was diagnosed with Hepatitis A, but there is a “low risk to no risk” that the person transmitted it to anyone else, the Trumbull County General Health District says.

The facility is not a part of the Covelli Enterprises-owned Panera Cafe also in that building, Covelli and Panera officials said.

A Fresh Dough manufacturing facility produces the bread, bagel and roll doughs for the company’s bakery-cafes, the Panera Bread Corp. website says.

A Panera official said that because the facility makes food, employees wear masks and gloves, and the facility received an extra cleansing after learning of the person’s illness a few days ago, but the person does not work with food.

The workers there do not have contact with the public, and there is no indication anyone else has been infected, the company said.

Randee Shoenberger, epidemiologist for the Trumbull County Combined Health District, said the health district is “handling” the matter, and the individual is doing what is necessary to address it.

Hepatitis A is a vaccine-preventable, communicable disease of the liver. Among the ways it is spread is by people who have sexual contact with someone who has Hepatitis A, men who have sex with other men and travel to places where Hepatitis A is common, she said.