Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Hepatitis A outbreak in Madison County
WLOSers were all over yet another hepatitis A outbreak in the mountains. This one was centered at a home way out in Madison County near the Tennessee state line. There are four confirmed cases of hep A, and 10 more are suspected. WLOSers termed this a “nationwide” outbreak early on, then backed off.
Health officials told WLOSers that water from a contaminated spring was the problem. The home sits near the Appalachian Trail, and hikers apparently camp at the home and eat food provided by the homeowners. WLOSers called the place “a farm,” but it was really a house with a big garden and makeshift greenhouse.
At 11, Sheraldo brought us video of people dumping squash and other vegetables grown on the property in a pit, then someone pouring fuel oil over it and lighting it up. All plants had to be destroyed because the spring water that irrigated the garden tested positive for hep A, the health official told Sheraldo.
On an earlier news reading, newby Pat Simon showed us, once again, how to wash our hands. Because that’s one of the key ways to prevent the spread of hep A.
By the way, WLOSers said, this hep A outbreak is not connected to the hep A case of a Trevi restaurant worker. In Buncombe County, 548 people got a protective shot in connection with that case.
When lice attack
Some 27 students at Candler Elementary School were sent home last week because they had head lice, Cherub Charu told us. She quoted one mom, who said she spent hours and hours picking nits off her girl’s head.
Buncombe County school officials say they work with the school and with parents to explain how to get rid of the lice at school and in the home. It’s a tedious process, picking a louse off a single strand of hair, one at a time.
More on the land mine
WLOSers followed up on the story about the land mine a couple of boys found in a creek off Bull Creek Road in Riceville.
The old mine was a claymore anti-personnel mine. A deputy said it was designed for a “really big kill radius.” Luckily nobody got hurt and police detonated it. Roy St. Vincent, the father of one of the boys who found the mine, said kids shouldn’t pick up strange objects.
Sex with underage girls
That was the story that Carolyn “Little Red” Ryan brought us at 11. She said Buncombe County deputies went online and posed as 13 and 14-year-old girls. The busted two men who emailed them looking for hot sex with an underage girl. One dude drove all the way from Morganton. The men were arrested at the Asheville Mall and the Biltmore Square Mall, where the meetings were set up.
“Ever feel you’re fighting a war you can’t win?” Carolyn asked one deputy.
The deputy said yup, just about every day.
In other news…
One of the purse snatchers wanted for grabbing a bag at Earth Fare turned herself in after some of her family members saw store security camera video tape on television… People are concerned about the price of heating oil… And agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms want to know if that Uzi that the North Buncombe youth league was trying to raffle off was a legal weapon or not.
