Beth Jones plays homegrown epidemiologist and writes with certainty for wbur.org in Boston:

Missy is cute, blond, sweet, and four-years-old. She doesn’t look like a vector. But she initiated such a path of norovirus destruction at our Christmas party that it will forever be remembered as: The Party Where (Almost) Everyone Got Sick.

Really, really, sick.

We had friends, a delicious buffet, mulled cider and spiced eggnog. Children ran through the house in dress-up costumes. The tree twinkled, conversations hummed. It was the lovely party we’d hoped for.

At the end of the day, Missy sat on the bottom of our staircase and complained that her stomach hurt. It was no surprise; the kids had been playing for hours, eating on occasion. Picking up food, tasting it, putting it down. If I were to make a guess, my very unscientific norovirus research would lead me to that act of picking up and putting down. I’d wager that an infected half eaten snickerdoodle or a slice of smoked ham nibbled and abandoned by Missy was the cause of everything that followed.

The party was on Saturday. The norovirus has a 48-hour incubation period. By Monday, Missy was in Children’s Hospital Boston receiving intravenous fluids; she couldn’t even drink water without vomiting. Her mother could barely get out of bed. Two friends mistakenly thought they had food poisoning. Another guest thought the mulled cider had caused her to throw up. Like dominos, nearly everyone was slammed by the virus, knocked down and lying flat in bed or crawling to the bathroom. Thirteen of the 19 people at our party were sick within two days of the holiday festivities.

I’d like to see the food items on the menu. Any raw oysters?
 

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I like to think of myself as being quite conscious of food safety, but I have learned so much since starting my work with the International Food Safety Network six months ago.  Not only do I think more about washing my hands and cleaning food properly, I’ve told my family members about it as well.

My mom has become a regular reader of BarfBlog and we’ve also discussed a few of the articles at the dinner table.  When we’re out doing things and we see someone doing something unsafe with food (like picking food up off the floor and eating it) one of our favorite things to do is say, “Doug wouldn’t like that.”

It turns out that there are a few things in the lives of the Mazurs that “Doug wouldn’t like.”  A prime example is one of our favorite restaurants on the East side of Wichita.  They serve traditional Indian food, buffet style.  The restaurant is family owned, and as far as I know they have a relatively clean restaurant up to code according to the city.  But during my interview for my job with Doug, we discussed this restaurant and I distinctly remember him telling me it wasn’t a good idea to eat at a buffet.  The food sits out for hours and so many people go up and contaminate it, even with a sneeze guard.

He’s right, buffet style is a food safety nightmare , but unfortunately it hasn’t stopped our family from eating there once every two weeks.  I have yet to get sick from the buffet, so I continue to play the game of Russian roulette with the possible pathogens in the Indian food.  Each time we sit down at that restaurant we all say, “Doug sure wouldn’t approve of this.

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