Lee McGuire's 11 News report | Jeremy Desel's 11 News report

Customers are returning to the Pappasito’s Cantina on the North Freeway at Airtex, even as word is spreading that a waiter there may have inadvertently spread a dangerous infectious disease.

“My mom had warned me that there was a problem about a week ago, I guess, but I figured it was probably a pretty safe bet since it was on the news and in the paper that they probably had everything cleaned up by now,” diner Paige Gutierrez said.

The county health department said the restaurant has cleaned up its act now, but according to a health inspection obtained by 11 News, just last week employees there were observed not washing their hands for the required 20 seconds.

One employee was caught not washing their hands after cleaning a counter and then preparing a ready-to-eat dish.

The county’s public safety director said that violations like those are exactly what put customers in jeopardy when a server has an infectious disease.

Starting Tuesday, the county will offer free immune globulin antibody shots to people who ate at that particular Pappasito’s.

KHOU-TV

The restaurant in question is located at 15280 I-45 North.

But while the county is scrambling to gather medicines and warn the estimated 12,000 customers who dined at the restaurant on the affected dates, the restaurant itself doesn’t seem to be doing anything to keep its regular customers in the loop.

“There wasn’t anything that I saw. I mean, I can understand why they didn’t have anything up. For fear of people just turning right back around and leaving, but I didn’t see anything like that at all,” Gutierrez said.

Patrons who dined at the restaurant – only the Airtex location – on February 7-9 can go to the county clinic at 2500 Frick starting Tuesday morning.

But for the people who could have been exposed before that – but after January 23 – the shots won’t help. Those people are being advised to call their doctor.

11 News made several requests to speak with someone from Houston-based Pappas Restaurants, but they did not return our calls or e-mails.

Those who fear they were exposed are asked to call the HCPHES hotline at (713) 212-0200 or visit the Web site at www.hcphes.org for more information.