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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, February 27, 2008

E. coli outbreak shutters Sekiya's

 •  Restaurant inspectors 'just putting out fires'

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Mike Fu, left, and Keith Fernandez have eaten at Sekiya's two to three times a week for the past 30 years. Department of Health officials said they have temporarily suspended the restaurant's permit to operate.

GREGORY YAMAMOTO | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

CDC photo

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HOW TO STAY HEALTHY

Dangers: Most strains of E. coli are harmless. One, E. coli O157:H7, can be found in the guts of healthy farm animals but can cause severe illness or death when passed to humans.

How it's spread:

  • Improper slaughter of animals;

  • Milk contaminated by bacteria on cows or their udders;

  • Swimming in or drinking contaminated water;

  • Eating vegetables contaminated with the bacteria;

  • Contact with the contaminated stool of animals or infected humans.

    Symptoms: Include severe bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramps and infection causing kidney failure. Symptoms can last five to 10 days.

    Prevention: Thorough cooking of meat and vegetables kills the bacteria. Thorough washing of contaminated fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk, but may not remove all the bacteria.

    Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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    Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser
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    Sekiya's Restaurant in Kaimuki dumped all its food and everything disposable yesterday and began to disinfect the restaurant from top to bottom after the worst outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 in the state's history.

    Six customers who ate at Sekiya's suffered bloody diarrhea in December — followed by a seventh in February — even after the restaurant corrected health inspection violations, said Dr. Paul Effler, state epidemiologist for the Health Department.

    The head of Hawai'i's restaurant inspectors said the case shows the state doesn't have enough inspectors to keep restaurants in line.

    "This is not surprising," said Peter Oshiro, standards office supervisor for the state Department of Health. "We're not inspecting at the frequency we need to be. That's why we get these problems."

    When Sekiya's failed a second inspection on Feb. 8, the owners agreed to the unprecedented steps of cleaning and disinfecting the restaurant before the Health Department shut it down, Oshiro said.

    "This thing was getting out of hand," Oshiro said. "It was a real mess. ... We've never ordered anyone to go this far — to dump all their stock."

    Employees yesterday began a two-day sanitation education program at the restaurant, which is just one step toward getting the restaurant reopened someday, Oshiro said.

    Restaurant employees said the owners did not want to comment. A recording on Sekiya's answering machine said the restaurant would be closed "for maintenance" until the end of the week. It could not receive messages.

    Loyal customers who did not get the word yesterday drove over orange cones blocking Sekiya's parking lot across from Kaimuki High School and walked to the restaurant's shuttered glass door.

    They were greeted with a handwritten sign that read:

    "Closed for maintenance

    Sorry for the inconvenience"

    Mike and Rosemarie Fu and her son, Keith Fernandez, have eaten at Sekiya's two to three times a week for the past 30 years and were looking forward to a lunch of sushi, mac salad and deep-fried sweet potatoes.

    "My (other) son's going to be disappointed," Rosemarie Fu said. "He's expecting chow fun noodles, salad and sushi for his dinner."

    When his mother suggested they eat at Subway instead, Fernandez said, "It's not the same. Sweet the sushi here. I way like it over Subway."

    Twelve-year-old Po'okea Lupenui stayed home from school with an upset stomach. So his mother, Jennifer Taa, brought him to Sekiya's to make him feel better.

    He was planning on gorging on teriyaki beef sticks — with extra sauce — plus saimin, rice and a strawberry ice cream sundae.

    When told the restaurant was closed, Po'okea could not hide his disappointment.

    Taa's family has been celebrating special occasions at Sekiya's for years and Po'okea had his seventh birthday there for a simple reason:

    "It's great food," he said.

    REPEATED VIOLATIONS

    But Health Department inspectors repeatedly found violations in the way Sekiya's employees handled the food that Po'okea loves.

    The customers who fell ill went to their doctors, who then ordered stool samples, Effler said. Technicians at the state laboratory created a "DNA fingerprint" of each sample that was checked against a nationwide database on the Mainland, Effler said.

    "They didn't match anything else on the Mainland," he said, "but they matched each other, which suggests a common source."

    In each of the six cases, the patients had eaten at Sekiya's within seven days of their symptoms.

    "This was not a coincidence," Effler said.

    Anyone who suspects exposure to E. coli 0157:H7 should see their doctor, who would take stool samples, he said.

    After the positive diagnosis by the first six Sekiya's customers, restaurant inspectors spent four hours at the restaurant on Christmas Eve watching the operation.

    "The conditions of the restaurant were poor," said Oshiro, the inspectors' supervisor.

    Among other violations, employees did not wash their hands. And raw food — and items that touched raw food — were mingled with cooked food that was ready to be served, he said.

    Follow-up inspections on Dec. 26 and Dec. 27 showed that the restaurant "corrected all major violations," Oshiro said. "Everything was good."

    Inspectors returned to Sekiya's on Feb. 8 after the seventh customer showed the same DNA fingerprint for E.coli 0157:H7.

    "Many of the same problems that were there in December were noticed in February," Oshiro said.

    PERMIT SUSPENDED

    Health officials suspended Sekiya's permit to operate and were prepared to shut down the restaurant when the owners agreed to a series of dramatic steps, Oshiro said. He said they agreed to:

  • Hire a private food-safety consultant;

  • Have the owners, managers and employees attend a free, two-day sanitization course at the restaurant;

  • Destroy all food and disposable items such as plastic forks, napkins and chopsticks;

  • Sanitize all equipment and interior spaces "from the floor to the walls to the ceiling"; and

  • Get rid of anything that could not be sanitized.

    Oshiro had no estimate for the financial loss to Sekiya's.

    "What I do know is that they're removing everything disposable that could have been touched," he said. "In the meantime, they're closed indefinitely until they're ready to be reinspected."

    Keith Fernandez plans to be there when Sekiya's begins service again.

    "We've never had any problems," he said. "I would guarantee come back. The food's so good."

    Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.