Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 19, 1990                   TAG: 9005190137
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BOY'S HOME TO GET HEPATITIS VACCINE

Dr. Molly Hagan, director of the Alleghany Health District, said Friday she learned that a food worker at the facility had been tentatively diagnosed as having hepatitis A, a viral disease that causes inflammation of the liver.

Hagan said the decision to vaccinate was a "judgment call" because conclusive laboratory tests on the food worker won't be available until next week. The vaccine should help protect anyone who may have been exposed to the hepatitis virus in the past several weeks.

The home, operated by the Episcopal Church, offers short- and long-term housing to boys from broken families. It can care for up to 60 boys.

Earlier this month, an outbreak in Alleghany and Botetourt counties of a dozen hepatitis cases prompted Hagan to warn area physicians to be on the alert for patients showing symptoms of hepatitis A.

Victims initially experience fever, nausea, vomiting and a loss of appetite. After a week these symptoms disappear but the patient becomes jaundiced. The skin and whites of the eyes turn yellow and the urine is dark.