The lawyers at Pritzker Hageman have been fielding calls all day from people with questions about hepatitis A from Costco berries. Pritzker and his team are representing Costco customers who contracted hepatitis A after eating Townsend Farms Organic Anti-Oxidant Blend, a berry mix with pomegranate seeds.
This product has been implicated in a hepatitis A outbreak that has sickened over 60 people in 7 states. Townsend Farms issued a Townsend Farms Organic Antioxidant Blend recall on June 3.
“Many people contacting us are unaware that a hepatitis A vaccination can prevent illness if given within two weeks of exposure to a contaminated product,” said Pritzker. “We want consumers to know that they need to get to their doctors as soon as possible to find out if they need a vaccination.” [As of June 6, 2013, Costco is providing free hepatitis A vaccinations to customers who ate the implicated Townsend Farms berries.]
To date, there are confirmed cases of hepatitis A cases in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. In Arizona, 5 of the 7 cases are in Maricopa County, the Phoenix area. In California 3 of the 6 outbreak victims were hospitalized, and the there are cases in Humboldt, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. In Nevada, there are 2 cases in Reno and 3 in Las Vegas.
Health officials are looking at pomegranate seeds in the Townsend Farms Organic Anti-Oxidant Blend as the most likely source of the hepatitis A. The pomegranate seeds were imported from Turkey.
