Jamba Juice Calif. customers warned on hepatitis A

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - About 4,000 customers could be at risk after a worker at a Jamba Juice store in San Jose, California, developed hepatitis A, the chief medical officer for Santa Clara County said on Thursday.

"During the time she was infectious, she was also working at Jamba Juice, so we were concerned that even though there is a corporate policy of good hand washing, you can't be 100 percent sure," Martin Fenstersheib said in an interview.

"There is a potential risk for people who were in that facility drinking the Jamba juice during the time she worked," he added.

Hepatitis A, a rare occurrence in food service workers, is transmitted through oral and fecal contact. It can cause jaundice, fatigue, stomach cramps, and other ailments. Medical officials are advising anyone who may have been affected to get a vaccination.

Fenstersheib based his number of potentially affected customers on data provided by the company for the time the unidentified worker was on the job during the first 16 days of August.

The worker's doctor reported the case to county health officials on Wednesday. Because the disease takes about a month to incubate, there are no other known cases from exposure to the worker at present, according to health officials.

The store was closed briefly for cleaning and disinfection and has since reopened.

"Jamba Juice will pay eligible individuals, who satisfy the reimbursement requirements, their reasonable, out-of-pocket medical expenses related to the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis A," Paul Clayton, Jamba Juice's chief executive, said in a statement.

"We acted quickly to resolve this situation and the store is now open, 100 percent safe and we look forward to getting back to what we do best, serving up liquid sunshine."

Jamba Inc. shares closed down 3.5 cents to $6.62 on Nasdaq on Thursday.

(Reporting by Adam Tanner, editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)