‘A Taste of Health’ to honor nurses, health care workers for community service during hepatitis A outbreak

“A Taste of Health” event will be held on Thursday, July 26, to thank nurses and other health care workers for their service to the community during the recent hepatitis A outbreak.

The event, which is open to the public, will feature healthy food options from more than 20 different restaurants and local grocers, as well as a cash bar, live music from Joe DeBow (blues, R&B, reggae, jazz), a silent auction and raffles.

Hosted by University of Louisville Physicians – Infectious Diseases, the Kentucky Nurses Association and the Kentucky Restaurant Association, the event will be held from 6-8 p.m. at the UofL Kosair Charities Clinical and Translational Research Building at 505 S. Hancock St. on the UofL Health Sciences Campus.

The cost of the event is $45 for members of the Kentucky Nurses Association, and $50 for others. The money will go toward scholarship funds, education and research at the UofL School of Nursing, and some also will go to UofL Physicians - Infectious Diseases for vaccine supplies. The event also will feature a “Giving Tree.” 

“The event is a way for restaurants and the community to say ‘thank you’ to nurses for their efforts to mobilize and come to restaurants and vaccinate all workers against hepatitis A,” said Ruth Carrico, Ph.D., RN, clinical director of the UofL Physicians Vaccine and International Travel Center and an associate professor at the UofL School of Medicine.

Nurses from UofL vaccinated around 6,000 people at restaurants in Louisville and Jefferson County. Hepatitis A is a highly contagious liver infection, most likely to be spread from contaminated food or water or from close contact with an infected person or contaminated object.

“It’s important to recognize their contribution to public health,” Carrico said. “It’s also important to realize what a resource UofL is, in that we have the ability to mobilize and respond to a public health crisis such as this.”

RSVPs are requested by July 20 by visiting the Kentucky Nurses Foundation site here, or by calling the Kentucky Nurses Association office at 502-245-2843.