NEW YORK, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Restaurant chain Chi-Chi's has taken green onions off the menu at all of its more than 100 restaurants on fears the vegetable could be linked to a Hepatitis A outbreak in Pennsylvania, the company said on Thursday. The Mexican-style restaurant chain is taking green onions out of its salsa and cooked dishes after customers and employees of a Beaver Valley, Pennsylvania, Chi-Chi's tested positive for the infectious disease. About 240 confirmed cases of Hepatitis A have been linked to the restaurant, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on Tuesday. "Our decision today reflects the fact that contaminated green onions are the prime suspect of recent Hepatitis A outbreaks in various other states," Bill Zavertnik, chief operating officer of Chi-Chi's Inc., said in a statement. "We have no definitive information that green onions were involved in this outbreak. But out of an abundance of caution, we have decided to remove this ingredient from our menu." Hepatitis A can cause fever, exhaustion, vomiting and abdominal pain. The Beaver Valley restaurant has been closed. The company, based in Louisville, Kentucky, said none of its other restaurants, located throughout the Midwest and eastern United States, have been involved in the outbreak.
Cleaners arrive to perform sanitization procedures in a school in Russia's southern city of Stavropol, November 25, 2009. A one-week home quarantine for school children in all schools of Stavropol was ...
