The impact of the hepatitis outbreak on the Chi-Chi's chain is likely to be substantial, restaurant industry experts say.

"The serious hepatitis outbreak last year in Shanghai is the type of event our product will help eliminate," Mr. Panic said.

As mentioned before, the store used parts of the old Chi-Chi's site after the chain's aforementioned hepatitis outbreak.

The recent hepatitis outbreak was traced to one restaurant's imported green onions.

In New York City, a hepatitis outbreak in 1961 led to a ban that was not lifted until 1997.

Officials suspect that scallions are involved with a hepatitis outbreak there in which more than 540 people have become ill and 3 have died since last month.

The town rallied around a hepatitis outbreak and ended up purchasing the entire town from the investor who owned it.

Or the nationwide hepatitis outbreaks of '99.

During the conference, the centers said that public vaccination efforts to prevent hepatitis outbreaks should be extended to prisons.