Food Poisoning?! Really?

[strummer85]

The Hoya has it up to 96 people.

[hsaxa2010]

Oct 1, 2008 22:44:07 GMT -5 strummer85 said:

The Hoya has it up to 96 people.

That was updated around 6:30. GERMS has been quite active tonight (I've heard them multiple times in the last hour or so), and I would imagine this number is well above 100 by now.

[DanMcQ]

Georgetown is not the only school with a foodborne outbreak this year:

news.msu.edu/story/5678/

www.mlive.com/annarbornews/news/index.ssf/2008/09/e_coli_breakout_affects_univer.html

I just heard about this when i randomly stopped by the hoya's website. Back when I was in school our sports teams were usually the biggest groups in the cafeteria in the evenings when they finished practices. Is there any word if this hit any teams in mass?

[HoyaSinceBirth]

up to 146 as of this morning.

[hoya4ever]

Should they maybe think that is not the caf but the food they are serving? As in it doesn't matter where you serve it (Leavey or whatever) but what you serve?

[The Stig]

The rumor is that it was one type of Grab & Go sandwich that caused the trouble.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

which if true would make it not leo's fault at all since those are purchased and not made by leo's

[strummer85]

Yet another disaster under the Margie Bryant Auxiliary Services administration. I just don't understand how she remains employed.

[afirthionado]

Apparently it wasn't food poisoning from Leo's, but the NOROVIRUS:

explore.georgetown.edu/news/?ID=36763

I'll admit I had no idea what the norovirus was before today.

[mchoya]

Food poisoning is a type of norovirus according to the fact sheet provided in that link, unless I am reading it incorrectly. I still want to know what food caused the norovirus outbreak.

Also, every cable channel just cut out and is replaced by a screen to turn to channel 3 for an "important health update." The health update is the text of the broadcast e-mail, except in -3 font.

[DanMcQ]

If the outbreak was norovirus, a lot of the gratuitous comments made against the food services people are off base, although it is possible that an employee may have been the index case. It is equally possible to have been a sick student - we may (or may not) find out as the epidemiologists investigate.

www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/gastro/norovirus-qa.htm

Why is norovirus infection important for food handlers?

People working with food who are sick with norovirus gastroenteritis are a particular risk to others, because they handle the food and drink many other people will consume. Since the virus is so small, a sick food handler can easily – without meaning to – contaminate the food he or she is handling. Many of those eating the contaminated food may become ill, causing an outbreak.

Outbreaks of norovirus gastroenteritis have taken place in restaurants, cruise ships, nursing homes, hospitals, schools, banquet halls, summer camps, and family dinners – in other words, places where often people have consumed water and/or food prepared or handled by others. It is estimated that as many as half of all food-related outbreaks of illness may be caused by norovirus. In many of these cases, sick food handlers were thought to be implicated.

How is norovirus spread?

Noroviruses are found in the stool or vomit of infected people. People can become infected with the virus in several ways, including:

• eating food or drinking liquids that are contaminated with norovirus;
  
• touching surfaces or objects contaminated with norovirus, and then placing their hand in their mouth;
  
• having direct contact with another person who is infected and showing symptoms (for example, when caring for someone with illness, or sharing foods or eating utensils with someone who is ill).
  
  

Food and drinks can very easily become contaminated with norovirus because the virus is so small and because it probably takes fewer than 100 norovirus particles to make a person sick. Food can be contaminated either by direct contact with contaminated hands or work surfaces that are contaminated with stool or vomit, or by tiny droplets from nearby vomit that can travel through air to land on food. Although the virus cannot multiply outside of human bodies, once on food or in water, it can cause illness.

Some foods can be contaminated with norovirus before being delivered to a restaurant or store. Several outbreaks have been caused by the consumption of oysters harvested from contaminated waters. Other produce such as salads and frozen fruit may also be contaminated at source.

These outbreaks often occur just like this one: rapidly with little warning. Handwashing and environmental surface cleaning, as is being done here, is essential.

[jgalt]

Leos is opening for dinner tonight, anyone else as pumped as me????


I didnt think so, but i like quiet meals

If you read the story on the hoya website, there is a comment from someone claiming to be a former aramark employee. he says that the new grab n'go (organic to go) was not the idea of the leo's staff but rather of the presidents office who wanted to push leo's in a "green" direction. this person claims that Aramark senior management did not approve the change and warned strongly against it. while this may be unrelated to the sickness (although grab n'go seems to be the culprit) it would be interesting to see if these accusations are true.

[mchoya]

Oct 2, 2008 15:17:00 GMT -5 jgalt said:

Leos is opening for dinner tonight, anyone else as pumped as me????


I didnt think so, but i like quiet meals

I think tonight might be the best night to eat at Leo's. Everything will be freshly sanitized, every employee will be on their toes, nothing will be undercooked, etc.

[strummer85]

Oct 2, 2008 15:24:02 GMT -5 mchoya said:

Oct 2, 2008 15:17:00 GMT -5 jgalt said:

Leos is opening for dinner tonight, anyone else as pumped as me????


I didnt think so, but i like quiet meals

I think tonight might be the best night to eat at Leo's. Everything will be freshly sanitized, every employee will be on their toes, nothing will be undercooked, etc.

And your only company at the table will be the norovirus. Yum.

[jgalt]

Oct 2, 2008 15:39:43 GMT -5 strummer85 said:

Oct 2, 2008 15:24:02 GMT -5 mchoya said:

I think tonight might be the best night to eat at Leo's. Everything will be freshly sanitized, every employee will be on their toes, nothing will be undercooked, etc.

And your only company at the table will be the norovirus. Yum.

i hear he's quite the social butterfly

[jgalt]

well i just got back from dinner and talk about over reaction.

you walk in and have to sanitize your hands before they let you in (ok thats fine, just a little annoying)
every staff member is wearing gloves, even those not handling food (ok thats fine too)
but, they are now serving everyone their food (all food, salads and desert included) and it takes at least 5 times as long to get your food now was it did before. there are very few people there at this time, at 7 when it is most busy i cant imagine. with the few people there are now there was still a long line to wait for food. not to mention the downstairs area is closed, so that eliminates half the seating.
craziest of all, there are NO NAPKINS or salt and pepper shakers. i mean come on! napkins? really? i though they were trying to be clean? how am i going to wipe the spaghetti you just served me off my face with out any napkins??

we'll see how long this lasts.

[DanMcQ]

jgalt: as ridiculous as they may seem, the precautions you describe are not an overreaction with a norovirus outbreak. It is doubtful they will continue everything long-term, but experience on cruise ships and in community outbreaks like this in the past show that this is the only way to quickly stop the problem.

The reason for no common food sources (salad bars, etc) and common use items (condiment shakers, etc) is that the virus is often transmitted from one person to the next on these surfaces.

It is a highly contagious virus.

[jgalt]

i understand what they are trying to do. but i dont think that the practices at Leo's were responsible for what happened. the virus may have been spread there because it is a highly populated place, relatively confined, and open food offers the virus the perfect home to grow. does that situation change with they system have in place for the time being?

[DanMcQ]

jgalt:

They have (apparently) identified Leo's as the common point of spread. The changes you report that they have put in place are proven approaches that halt outbreaks on cruise ships and in settings like cafeterias and hospitals. The point is not that Leo's was doing anything wrong - the point is that once you get contamination of common use areas of an environmen in a dining area/cafeteria, be it on a cruise ship or at a college, the only way to stop further cases fast is to implement the changes they have. They aren't changes that need to stay in place forever, but the virus can contaminate shared surfaces for quite a while and sustain an outbreak unless drastic cleaning interventions are implemented.

I do Infectious Disease for a living so I am not just making this up.

Dan

tinyurl.com/3ptw9n

Noroviruses, recognized as the leading global cause of viral gastroenteritis and a major contributor to food-borne illness, present a growing challenge in health care and long-term care facilities. The virus spreads easily and by multiple routes. A visitor to a ward might initiate an outbreak by person-to-person contact, vomiting staff members or patients can disseminate the virus by airborne means, and contaminated surfaces, such as doorknobs and computer keyboards, can sustain an epidemic.

...and also in that article:

A recent lengthy outbreak affecting 27 students and 2 staff members in an elementary school in Washington, D.C., was traced to a contaminated computer mouse and keyboard and was not terminated until this shared resource was successfully disinfected.

www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5651a2.htm