If you attended TANGENT, READ THIS!

[uhclem at trsvax.UUCP]

If you attended the TANGENT Sixth Annual Conference in Fort Worth Texas
(April 17-20) PLEASE read the following.  If you know someone who attended,
be sure to let them know since not everybody stayed at this hotel, but they
probably took a mid-day meal there. 
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( 4/28/88-10:30 pm)
Banquet worker has hepatitis: 11,000 Worthington meals affected
>From Friday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram

  Anyone eating one of the 11,000 banquet meals served at the Worthington Hotel
during the last two weeks may have been exposed to hepatitis A.
  A food handler who works in the downtown Fort Worth hotel's banquet kitchen
was confirmed yesterday to have the viral infection.
  The Fort Worth Health Department is contacting the leaders of more than 30
organizations that have met at the hotel between April 15 and 27, Paula Jones,
public information officer for the health department, said.
  The hotel will pay for immunoglobulin  shots for anyone who attended a
banquet there during that period, Paul Lazzaro, a spokesman for the hotel, said.
  Anyone who may have been exposed should contact his or her physician about
the advisability of getting an injection, Jones said. Immunoglobulin can
prevent or lessen the severity of the disease.
  Anyone who takes the shot can present their receipt to the hotel for
reimbursement, Lazzaro said. 

  The alert involves only those who have eaten at a banquet. It does not
involve any of the hotel's regular dining rooms, Lazzaro said.

  Hepatitis A is caused by a virus that grows in fecal waste. It can be spread
through uncooked food if a food handler has not properly washed his hands after
going to the bathroom.
  Symptoms can develop 15 to 50 days after exposure, but most commonly develop 
between 25 and 30 days. Symptoms include fever, abdominal pain, loss of
appetite, nausea and vomiting. Severe cases often require hospitalization, and
sometimes result in death.
  He said he would not release the names of groups holding banquets at the
hotel because it is against hotel practice.
  "It is not our right to announce who was here and who was not here," Lazzaro
said. 
  Jones said she could not release the list because the hotel has asked that it
be kept confidential.
  "More than 11,000 meals were served in those banquet rooms during that time
frame, so there is the possibility of quite a few exposures," Jones said.
  Among the larger groups scheduling several meals at the hotel in the last
week was the National Forum for Black Public Administration. About 800 people
registered.
  Planned Parenthood also held its AIDS forum and luncheon at the Worthington
during the period involved.

END