Norovirus strikes Wisconsin residence, cruise ship ... me?
I don’t know what I have (right, exactly as shown), but can sympathize with the people quoted below.
University of Wisconsin freshman Ibrahim Balkhy contracted norovirus Sunday morning, saying,
“There was lots of puking and diarrhea — it was hell. All I have eaten are saltines.”
Between 20 and 30 residents of Sellery 6A, one of UW’s largest residence halls, have been fighting the virus since Thursday.
Craig Roberts, an epidemiologist for University Health Services, said the norovirus spreads through stool-to-mouth contact. It enters through the mouth and is passed via the stool or vomit of an infected person.
So don’t eat poop.
Meanwhile, 260 passengers and 17 crew members on board the Holland America Line M.S. Zuiderdam, have come down with norovirus
Brampton, Ontario, resident Ken Ould, 78, said that five days into his transatlantic cruise, the projectile vomiting and diarrhea started.
By the time he and the other 1,819 passengers and 794 crew disembarked in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday, he had missed three ports of call, and spent five days confined to his cabin with his wife Joyce.
Now, if you'll excuse me ...
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http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/admin/trackback/95427
I followed the links to a section on cleaning up vomit. Twenty-minute contact time? How many fast-food workers have stories about drunk patrons vomiting on the service counter? I've heard of employees scraping it up with grill spatulas, when vomitus viscosity was high enough.
It would be tough for a restaurant to have its service counter out of action for 20 minutes. I wonder if fast food restaurants have a standard procedure for removing vomit and other potentially infectious matter from food service areas.