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Restaurant owner discusses Hepatitis A scare

Mike Desmond/wbfo news

The owner of Casa di Pizza in the Elmwood Village said he knew a server was ill but didn't know he was infected with Hepatitis A.

On Thursday, owner Joe Jacobbi said the server reported for work clearly ill and looking a little yellow and was sent home.

On Friday, the Erie County Health Department notified him the server was diagnosed with Hepatitis A.

On Saturday, Health Department sanitarians swept through the restaurant and found some problems which have been cleared up and arranged for all workers to receive vaccinations across the street in Women and Children's Hospital.

"When you look a little yellow, you better get out of here," Jacobbi said of his worker.

The server worked only in the restaurant and not in the bar or the takeout operation. The Health Department held two days of a clinic in the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center and more than 1100 people were vaccinated against Hepatitis A.

Jacobbi said he hopes the source is found, as he re-builds his business.
               

"It's very frustrating for all of us, from the Health Department to the person it happened to and myself. And, it's been a triangle and I don't know how we're going to get out of this thing. Hopefully, we'll find the answer at some point and move on."

Jacobbi said the Health Department hasn't told him how the server was infected, if it has been determined.
 

Mike Desmond is one of Western New York’s most experienced reporters, having spent nearly a half-century covering the region for newspapers, television stations and public radio. He has been with WBFO and its predecessor, WNED-AM, since 1988. As a reporter for WBFO, he has covered literally thousands of stories involving education, science, business, the environment and many other issues. Mike has been a long-time theater reviewer for a variety of publications and was formerly a part-time reporter for The New York Times.