EUREKA -- A Woodford County woman who may be among those infected with hepatitis A after eating at a McDonald's in the Quad Cities area doesn't plant to return for any Happy Meals.

"Oh no, never," Karie Fiegel, 33, said when asked if she'd eat at McDonald's again. "Even though now I'm immune for the rest of my life."

The mother of three asked that her hometown not be used.

"I don't want people giving me that strange look," said the woman, who was hospitalized in Bloomington for three days because of the infection.

Earlier this week, more than 4,600 people in the Quad Cities area were vaccinated against hepatitis A or treated with a special drug. Rock Island County health officials and about 150 volunteers, including Laurie Schierer of the Woodford County Health Department, held clinics Monday and Tuesday for people who had eaten at the Milan McDonald's from June to mid-July.

Twenty-four cases of hepatitis A have been confirmed in Rock Island, Mercer, Henry, Warren and Woodford counties in Illinois, and in Scott County, Iowa. At least 11 people required hospitalization.

The Milan McDonald's was ordered closed July 15 to 17 by the Illinois Department of Public Health for cleaning.

Fiegel said she ate at the McDonalds June 8, but didn't feel sick until July 7.

She and her family, who are from that area, went through the drive-through in two cars. She ordered a Southwestern Chicken Sandwich meal and her daughter ordered two chicken wraps.

Fiegel's 14-year-old daughter has tested positive for hepatitis A, but has not been hospitalized because her symptoms are not as severe as her mother's, which required a three-day stay at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center.

Her symptoms began with a feeling of pressure in her head.

"I didn't really feel like a headache, more like pressure that nothing was relieving."

The next day, she broke out with a fever and back pain and was told it might be a sinus infection at OSF Prompt Care. That day she went to her family doctor, who feared it might be West Nile virus.

On July 14, she was hospitalized with fever, sweats and chills and had been vomiting for two days. She was isolated with what doctor's feared might be meningitis, and the next day they diagnosed hepatitis A.

Fiegel is still somewhat weak and under a doctor's care, but was released from the hospital after the vomiting subsided.

"I have been a pin cushion for the last two weeks," she said.

She added, "It's just disgusting to think about people touching my food without gloves."