Owner fears for Manuka eatery after alert
BY NOEL TOWELL AND PETER JEAN | 07 Apr, 2011 06:27 AM
Health authorities say a Canberra restaurateur is a victim of circumstance after they issued a health alert about his premises.
But the owner of Aladdin Restaurant in Manuka says he will be forced to appeal to his customers’ loyalty if his business is to survive the effects of the widely publicised warning.
People who ate at Aladdin in Manuka last month have been warned to be on the alert for symptoms of the rare hepatitis E virus after a kitchenhand at the restaurant was diagnosed with the disease.
Now, Aladdin’s owner Shafique Ali Islam fears his family business is doomed after the warning was issued by ACT Health yesterday.
”This has been my hard work to build up this business over three years and now, maybe tomorrow I have to go to Centrelink for my family to eat,” he said.
”I run a good business and I am helping the community but now I am thinking that the community may have to help me.”
The 41-year-old restaurateur sent the employee home after the kitchenhand reported feeling unwell and the next time he heard about the matter was when ACT Health contacted him.
Acting Chief Health Officer Paul Kelly issued a public health alert for people who ate at the Aladdin Indian Restaurant between March 3 and 21 after the food handler was diagnosed with hepatitis E last week.
While the risk of transmission was low, Dr Kelly advised people who ate at the restaurant between those dates to seek prompt medical attention if they developed symptoms of hepatitis.
Typical signs and symptoms of hepatitis E – which is rare in Australia but endemic in developing nations – include loss of appetite, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, fever, dark urine and yellowing of the skin and eyes. Symptoms usually develop 15 to 60 days after exposure to the virus.
ACT Health said the food handler stopped working as soon as the symptoms became apparent, that the restaurant had cooperated fully with authorities and there was no risk attached to eating at Aladdin’s.
Link reqeusted by Avijit Sarkar | Original source at http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/owner-fears-for-manuka-eatery-after-alert/2126732.aspx
ACT Health Alert at http://www.health.act.gov.au/c/health?a=sendfile&ft=p&fid=1302051068&sidlink
