Sun Special WriterSt. Louis Public School District released a letter from the Mid-Michigan District Health Department Friday, reporting a case of Hepatitis A found in a school employee.Dr. Robert Graham, medical director for MMDHD, said there is no current cause for alarm, but the district sent home copies of Graham’s letter to parents as a precautionary measure.as a food handler for Chartwell, a contracted, independent food service for the district, the person reported to carry the disease last worked in the T.S. Nurnberger School.“We were notified by the health department prior to them coming to the district to actually touch base as part of that investigation piece,” Superintendent Joann Spry said. “We were notified right around noon today.”Spry, who received the information at 11:25 a.m., was not sure how much contact the person had with items potentially distributed to students, nor the time when the person was diagnosed.“No parental action is needed at this time,” Spry said. “in a conversation with Dr. Graham, he was just sharing that what we were doing was sending this information home so the parents would have the information about Hepatitis A.”Spry said, following Graham’s recommendations, letters were sent out to district parents, providing information about hepatitis symptoms so if parents were to see anything disconcerting, they could contact the health department.“He didn’t feel there was any major concern in terms of the students, but we wanted to get the information out there in case parents wanted to find out more,” she said.The name of the person has not been released, but is expected to make a full recovery. Spry said the only information she received of the worker was the person was a substitute, who occasionally filled in for other workers.if further cases of the disease are reported, Spry said the district would immediately follow up with the health department.“We sent out an instant alert, sent home letters to all parents today, and we would continue to do what is directed by professionals to maintain health and safety for all the staff and students,” she said. “in a very few short hours here, we have gotten a lot of information to a lot of people.”
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