Hepatitis A Scare for Ashton Kutcher Post Birthday Bash

Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher must be having one bad scare, with a bartender at the nightclub where he celebrated his 30th birthday earlier this month reportedly down with Hepatitis A.

Ashton had gone to the Socialista, a happening nightclub in New York, to celebrate his 30th birthday. In attendance at the do were a number of other familiar Hollywood faces. Among them were Kutcher’s wife Demi Moore, Demi’s ex-husband Bruce Willis, Madonna, and Gwyneth Paltrow.

While being in Socialista itself possibly with a bartender down with Hepatitis A is cause for worry, what is really worrisome is the New York City Health Department notification today that the infected bartender may have passed on the bug to patrons.

The notification from the New York City Health Department today says the bartender could have transmitted the Hepatitis A bug to patrons some time early this month. Kutcher was in the nightclub on the night of February 7, which was when the bartender was there as well. He supposedly works only three nights at the club, and unfortunately Kutcher’s party happened to be on one of those three days.

According to the day manager at Socialista, the bartender possibly caught the bug when he was vacationing in the Honduras a while back. He came to know he was infected only recently. The manager said, “We’re doing everything we possibly can to make sure that no one comes in contact with this virus.”

A statement from the Health Department said the owners of Socialista were offering them total support and cooperation to ensure the problem was sorted out. The authorities have suggested all partygoers who were present at the Socialista on the nights the infected bartender was working be vaccinated.

There were over 700 to 800 people in all at the nightclub on those given days, but apart from the bartender himself, there have been no reports of any other cases of Hepatitis A. However, vaccination is a safe step, as it would help rule out the possibility of further infections. For all celebrities careful about spending their money, the Health Department is offering Hepatitis A shots for free at P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village.

Hepatitis affects the liver, a disease in which the liver basically swells up. Hepatitis A itself is not as bad as the other forms of Hepatitis that we know of, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C. Patients usually recover within weeks. A National Institutes of Health release said the disease is transmitted mainly through food or water that has been tainted by the stool of a person already suffering from the disease.