More than 540 ill, 3 dead after hepatitis A outbreak

PITTSBURGH -- When avid University of Pittsburgh football fan John Spratt skipped the Pitt game on Oct. 11, Joseph Spratt knew his younger brother was sick. Neither of them realized how sick.

Barely a month later -- on Nov. 14 -- Jack Spratt was dead at age 46 of liver failure, the third and latest fatality in the biggest known outbreak of hepatitis A in U.S. history.

More than 540 people have fallen ill over the past few weeks after going to a now-closed Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurant, and investigators say scallions may have been the source of the virus.

Spratt, who worked at a payroll processing company, fell ill after having the chicken fajitas with his 17-year-old daughter on Oct. 5 at the restaurant in the Beaver Valley Mall, about 25 miles from Pittsburgh. His daughter did not get sick, apparently because she did not eat all the condiments that came with the fajitas.

Not usually fatal

The three deaths resulting from the outbreak have shocked western Pennsylvanians, be-cause health authorities have been saying that hepatitis A is usually not fatal and normally runs its course in a few weeks after causing such symptoms as fever, jaundice, nausea and abdominal pain.

Other victims are slowly trying to get over the symptoms.

Jennifer Parison, a 32-year-old homemaker, has been ill since Oct. 30. Seven months pregnant, Parison has been told her unborn child is in no danger. But that has not made her life any easier.

"All you want to do is sleep. It's like you're disoriented all the time," Parison said. "And with four kids screaming and a husband working 12- to 14-hour days, it's like it's never going to end."

She said the TV accounts of the outbreak scare her and make her cry.

"You go out to eat and you think you're safe and you end up sick. This is ridiculous," she said. "I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy."

Kim and Jim Hite took the virus with them on vacation. They ate taco salads at Chi-Chi's on Oct. 4 and Jim Hite became ill about two weeks later, while the couple were celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary in Florida.

"By the time we left Florida, he was throwing up and had a horrible flight home," said Kim Hite, a 31-year-old kitchen manager at another restaurant. She became ill shortly afterward, as did two others in their dinner group.

"Actually, we thought we had the flu and were treating it like the flu, but once you get into it, it's 10 times more horrible than the flu," she said. "You totally lose your appetite. You actually eat because you have to eat to live. You don't eat because you're hungry."

She said she has lost 25 to 30 pounds and her husband has lost 40 to 50.

For the next week or two, they figure they will pass the time with three or four naps a day, daytime television, puzzles and board games.

"This is not us. We're always on the go," she said. "This really settled us down."

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Associated Press Writer Dan Nephin contributed to this report.