QUAD CITIES - The Rock Island County Health Department has reported its 18th case of hepatitis A stemming from an outbreak that began about a month ago.

"This individual is a household contact to one of the cases reported the week of July 13," said Theresa Foes, a spokeswoman for the health department. The person in question did not get immunized against the disease, she added. More than 5,300 people were immunized at clinics the department offered last month.

There have now been at least 32 cases of hepatitis A confirmed in western Illinois and eastern Iowa in connection with the outbreak. All of them involve or are somehow related to people who visited a McDonald's restaurant, 400 W. First St., Milan, Ill., earlier this summer.

Three lawsuits have been filed in Rock Island County Circuit Court in connection with the outbreak of the disease.

Hepatitis A is the least serious of all the hepatitis diseases that affect the liver. It has an incubation period of 14 to 28 days, but it can affect people for up to 50 days. Officials think hepatitis A cases will continue to turn up in this area into early September.