Employee appreciation luncheon: thank you and here is your norovirus

Posted: April 26th, 2010 - 4:24pm by Doug Powell

The Mansfield News Journal of Ohio reports that 68 people who attended a March 5 employee appreciation luncheon at Emerson Precision fell ill with norovirus, but health officials were unable to pin down exactly where the bug was picked up.

More than half of the 102 Emerson workers present at the luncheon had vomiting, diarrhea and, in some cases, a low-grade fever. Some workers from a restaurant that provided the event's sandwiches, salads and cookies reported illnesses, too.

The luncheon was on a Friday. The owner of the restaurant called health officials early Monday.

Matthew Work, environmental health chief for the Mansfield-Ontario-Richland County Health Department, said,

"We had a call from (the owner) himself. He informed us that some people had gotten sick and asked for our help in investigating it. He did a great job of telling us right away."

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Categories: Norovirus
Tags: Emerson Precision, norovirus, Ohio

Comments

Sheila says:

Just another reason why I don't eat at company functions. And this one was catered! Usually it's when the companies have pot luck dinners that you hear about people getting sick.

Posted on April 27th, 2010 - 2:37pm

Brian says:

This happened after a catered holiday party a few years ago at my old job. I think it was also norovirus. This was at a food safety research center and everyone who got sick were microbiologists and food processing engineers. Every year after that we ditched that caterer and went to a banquet room for our party.

Posted on April 30th, 2010 - 10:16am

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