Passengers on a recent American Airlines flight from San Francisco to Charlotte, N.C., may have been exposed to hepatitis A, officials recently revealed.

The 18 passengers on the Sept. 21 flight were contacted about possible exposure, and all have since been vaccinated against the highly contagious liver infection, the Charlotte Observer reports. A spokesperson for the Mecklenburg County Health Department told the newspaper the risk was limited to only the passengers on the flight.

A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told Fox News in a statement on Tuesday that a flight attendant was linked to the virus.

“For [HIPAA] privacy act related reasons, we cannot disclose specific information about the team member involved in this matter. However, once informed by the CDC of a team member potentially carrying infectious disease, American Airlines policy is to immediately remove the individual from service until all necessary health measures have been completed in accordance with CDC guidance,” the airline said in a statement to WSOC. 

All patients have been vaccinated.

The liver infection is caused by the hepatitis A virus, according to the CDC. The virus typically spreads when a person eats or drinks something “contaminated by small, undetected amounts of stool from an infected person,” the health agency said.

Those who contract hepatitis A — not to be confused with hepatitis B or C, which are caused by different viruses — may be sick for “several weeks” and usually fully recover, according to the CDC.

It is rare to die from the illness, though hepatitis A can cause liver failure and death, typically in those who are 50 years of age or older. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, dark urine, vomiting, joint pain, and jaundice, among other signs.

While hepatitis A infections do happen in the U.S., they’re more common in developing countries, where sanitation and hygiene tend to be poor, the CDC says. The disease is preventable with a vaccine.

8 thoughts on “Passengers on American Flight Exposed To Deadly Infection”
  1. Sounds like a new plan for the Big Pharma to force us to get their vaccinations! FEAR FEAR FEAR!

    1. Justisis you do not want to joke about this disease. It is serious it still shows in my blood so I can’t donate blood

  2. Without encroaching on Privacy rules, was the team member from a developing country?

    1. Believe me you do not want to get this disease. There was an outbreak of it in the mid fifties and I was infected with it from my daughter who contacted it in school. I spent 30 days in a hospital and then confined to my home for three months and couldn’t climb stairs or do any heavy lifting.

  3. Thank you to the illegal immigrants who moved into our great country carrying Hep A into S.F. and giving it to the passengers somehow….mark my words, this is where the CDC will find it to come from. Maybe Pelosi and Feinstein and Boxster, and all of the rest of the people who are fighing sending the illegals back to their countries

  4. A flight attendant from San Francisco would be exposed to the same diseases found in a 3rd world country. When the homeless population is allowed to poop, pee and leave their dirty used needles on the street it spreads diseases!

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