"it's not food poisoning, it's likely norovirus." Um, sometimes they are the same
According to the Dumfries & Galloway Standard (UK), a Dumfries hotel has temporarily shut after 20 patrons who ate there complained of illnesses.
Owner Aileen McGhie told the Standard she was not ordered to close the three-star hotel, and took the decision to do so herself in a bid to clean the premises from top to bottom.
She said: “A few people fell ill last week after being a guest or a diner at the hotel and we are still waiting for test results. I called environmental health myself and it is assumed it is an outbreak of the Norovirus. Rumours that it is food poisoning are completely false.
Um, Aileen, sometimes they are the same thing. While cruiseships and hospitals get a lot of press for norovirus, the majority of reported norovirus outbreaks are associated with foodservice settings or events, and have higher attack rates than other settings. While the difference between classical food poisoning might matter to you, many of the control measures are the same (reducing cross-contamination, good personal hygiene, doing a good job at cleaning up barf).
Owner Aiellen McGhie went on to say:
“Twenty people is not actually a high number considering the hundreds of people we had in the hotel that week."
It's possible that one dish or food handler is implicated in -- my guess is that not everyone ate everything on the menu. Foodborne illness cases are also consistently under reported and might contribute to the "low numbers". And it probably doesn't matter to the barfing customers.
Fast food workers: Wash your hands
I have been sick the past few days. I am not sure what caused it, where I contracted the illness, but I am sick. In my mind, this reiterates the need for everyone to wash his or her hands.
A recent study co-authored by William Burkhardt, a food virologist and microbiologist with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), explains that more than half of food service workers do not wash their hands before returning to work.
In an article by the Quad-City Times, foodborne illnesses can happen anywhere and they are easy to transmit:
Norovirus, hepatitis A and E. coli, another gastrointestinal infection, are the most common food-borne illnesses involving restaurants, Burkhardt said. Norovirus, like hepatitis A, is spread by fecal matter on food products that are then ingested by unaware patrons. However, the hepatitis A symptoms might not show up for 10-14 days while those with norovirus know much more quickly, in as little as 12 hours after ingestion.
Those who ingest the hepatitis A virus need only a few particles to eventually become ill, according to the microbiologist. "Oftentimes, a hundred million of these viral particles are present in a gram of fecal material," he said.
Even a small piece of fecal matter on a person's hand can transmit the germs, especially to salads, uncooked food items or in ice. The virus is killed during proper cooking.
To prevent the spread of foodborne illness food service workers should abide by proper handwashing and proper glove usage.
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Fantasy cycling and fantasy eating during the Tour de France
I’ve been following the Tour de France
According to the New York Times article, “Five-star tour cuisine for guys who eat and ride” the men on the tour require 5000 to 8000 calories a day.
Every day at the Tour, Fowler cooks exclusively for Garmin’s nine riders, to the chagrin of team management. (…)
On a typical morning, they will gather their cooking gear and take it to the motor home in which they follow the race. They make sure to arrive early at the team’s next hotel, to inspect the kitchen.
If it is not up to Sean Fowler’s standards for cleanliness, which has happened a few times at this Tour, he will cook in the motor home. He takes precautions to keep the riders safe from food poisoning or other gastrointestinal problems, which could be devastating to their performance. In his motor home, he wields utensils and pots and pans like a careful samurai because the space is cramped.
Local is not safer
Spring has sprung in Kansas. We all worked in the yard yesterday, and after a couple of cool nights later in the week, the first leafy greens will be going into the garden.
With spring comes the mantra, local is safer.
The idea food that is grown and consumed locally is somehow safer than other food, either because it contacts fewer hands or any outbreaks would be contained, is sorta soothing, like a mild hallucinogen, and has absolutely no basis in reality.
Foodborne illness is vastly underreported -- it's known as the burden of reporting foodborne illness. Someone has to get sick enough to go to a doctor, go to a doctor that is bright enough to order the right test, live in a state that has the known foodborne illnesses as a reportable disease, and then it gets registered by the feds. For every known case of foodborne illness, there are 10 -300 other cases, depending on the severity of the bug.
Most foodborne illness is never detected. It’s almost never the last meal someone ate, or whatever other mythologies are out there. A stool sample linked with some epidemiology or food testing is required to make associations with specific foods.
Robert Brackett, senior vice president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and a darn fine scientist, told USA Today most foodborne illnesses don't get noticed because not enough people get sick to alert officials that an outbreak is underway. Undetected outbreaks are more likely with "local" products delivered in small quantities and sold in a small area.
Comparing local with all that other food brings in more tenuous links and numerous erroneous assumptions. To accurately compare local and other food, a database would have to somehow be constructed so that a comparison of illnesses on a per capita meal or even ingredient basis could be made.
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But the absence of data doesn’t stop doctrine. JoLynn Montgomery, director of the Michigan Center for Public Health Preparedness at the University of Michigan told the Detroit Free Press today that one solution that is catching on is buying locally grown foods.
"The less distance the food has to travel, the fewer people who touch the food, the less risk you have.”
Local can be microbiologically safe. But repeating ‘local’ while in some sorta peyote buzz doesn’t take care of the dangerous bugs. So wherever food is purchased or even grown, ask some questions:
• how are pathogenic microorganisms managed;
• is wash and irrigation water tested for dangerous bacteria;
• how is fresh produce protected from animal poop;
• what kind of soil amendments are being used and are they microbiologically safe; and,
• are you or your suppliers practicing great handwashing?
That’s a start.
Sickened vacationers sue hotel
It was reading week (the Canadian equivalent to spring break) a few weeks ago, and through my Facebook creeping I saw that many of my friends traveled south for vacation. Nothing quite evaporates the stress of midterm exams like tanning and over-consuming alcohol.
Unfortunately for dozens of vacationers at a Cape Verde island resort, fun in the sun was accompanied with stomach cramps and diarrhea, reports the Yorkshire Evening Post.
A group of 40 sunseekers want compensation after a stay at the Riu Garopa and Riu Funana hotels on the Cape Verde islands, off the west African coast, left them seriously ill. A further 70 people who were also affected have sought legal advice. Solicitors at Irwin Mitchell say calls are still coming in and they expect the number of complaints to hit 200.
Some guests who were there between August and October last year claim food at the hotels was undercooked, uneaten meals were re-served, and food was often left uncovered and unprotected from insects.
One of the sick vacationers, Barry Taylor, who stayed at the Riu Garopa in September with his wife, said,
"I've never experienced illness like this before. It was horrendous. It ruined our holiday and we're still suffering from some of the symptoms today, more than four months after the trip.”
He continued,
"The standards at the Garopa were disgraceful. There was a smell of sewage hanging around the place and there were huge cockroaches everywhere – in the dining room, the bedrooms, down the corridors. My wife managed to get into the town to get medication that a doctor prescribed but because there was so many people ill they had run out."
The cause of illness is believed to be Shigella, often contracted through consumption of contaminated food or water. Fecally contaminated water and unsanitary handling by food handlers are the most common causes of contamination with Shigella. In the past salads (potato, tuna, macaroni), raw vegetables, dairy products and poultry have been implicated as vectors for illness.
Food poisoning sickens 80 at Neb. choir event
Nebraska health officials say more than 80 people fell ill from food poisoning after a choir competition Feb. 21 at Papillion-La Vista High School.
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Food served at the competition came from a range of sources, including vendors and parents who had donated baked goods for a fundraiser.
State epidemiologist Tom Safranek says the illnesses have been traced to improperly handled meat, which was cooked at a family's home.
The illnesses are not linked to a recent outbreak of salmonella that's sickened at least 14 people in eastern Nebraska. State health officials are still investigating the source of those illnesses.
Possible food poisoning outbreak at Florida State sorority
Looks like I picked the wrong week to visit Florida.
Thirty years before Stephen Colbert used the picture of himself in a picture in a picture, Lloyd Bridges was doing it in the movie, Airplane (right).
And tonight, according to WCTV in Tallahassee, rumors are circulating that more than 70 girls in the Phi Mu house at Florida State University have become very ill and some maybe even hospitalized in a possible outbreak of foodborne illness.
“Some members of the Greek community say it is possible that this outbreak is affecting more than one house and the rumors have many other sororities taking precautions to protect their members.”
Kara Beth Yancey, a FSU sorority member, says her house is going to take more precautions to prevent a similar situation.
"We're not going to stop ordering in but we are going to be a little more cautious on what kind of food we're ordering in."
I wonder what kind of food they’re going to limit the ordering in of? Amy, Courtlynn and me, we’re in Venice, Florida, so maybe we can avoid some of that ordered in food.
Casey Jacob, guest barfblogger: The south central Kansas omnivore's dilemma
We thought we might try Acapulco Restaurant, a Mexican franchise in town. That is, until I read on FSnet that the restaurant had just been named as the source of a 19-person salmonella outbreak. My new hubby was suddenly not too keen on going.I, however, reasoned that after gaining some bad press and losing a bit of business, the restaurant’s management would be preaching food safety harder than they ever had before. The chances of an outbreak due to kitchen hygiene issues likely decreased dramatically.
In August 2007, Donna Garren, vice-president of health and safety regulatory affairs for the National Restaurant Association trade group, said outbreaks were leading restaurant chains to “[spend] additional resources outside of the typical food safety domain.”
Donna also admits, however, “There are costs associated with not knowing your suppliers.” If ingredients aren’t sourced from safe suppliers, even that assumedly sparkling-clean kitchen is no guarantee I’ll be served safe food.
Her quote was included in an article that claimed it was statistically safer to eat at fast-food chain restaurants than to cook for yourself at home.
While the title of Biggest Source of Foodborne Illness – home, restaurant, elsewhere -- is still hard to pin down, it can be safely said that both chain restaurants and the household kitchen are still in the running. So who knows where I’ll have dinner tonight… or if I’ll make it out without barfing.
As one Acapulco Restaurant patron confessed, “You compare all the bad to the good, sometimes it's worth the risks.”
Casey Jacob is the married version of former barfblogger Casey Wilkinson, and continues to work with her Kansas friends.
Puking Myths: How to tell the difference between foodborne illness and the flu
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During the holidays I heard a couple of barf stories that were attributed to uncertain causes. At the same time, Doug and I were laid up with the flu for about two weeks, neither of us really puking but feeling exhausted, nauseated with chills and muscle aches. One woman said she had the flu, too … that it came on really fast, was coming out both ends, and then she felt better the next day. I asked her, “Are you sure it wasn’t foodborne illness?” “Might’ve been…” she replied thoughtfully, probably going over the list of things she had eaten. Another friend just got back from Chicago – a trip that she said was ruined by her husband puking his guts out. They thought it was the Polish buffet because while he chose some foods, she had others, and she assumed something he ate was off. Might’ve been. But how do you know when it’s food poisoning and when it’s the flu?
The following list of flu symptoms, which I looked up while I was laid up on the couch over break, comes from the CDC :
Flufacts.com suggests you know the FACTS (Fever, Aches, Chills, Tiredness,Influenza usually starts suddenly and may include the following symptoms:
* Fever (usually high)
* Headache
* Tiredness (can be extreme)
* Cough
* Sore throat
* Runny or stuffy nose
* Body aches
* Diarrhea and vomiting (more common among children than adults)
Sudden symptoms)
If you have foodborne illness, the FDA’s Bad Bug Book gives a comprehensive list of suspects by symptom and time of onset. It can be a little more complicated to diagnose as some toxins, such as shellfish toxin, can have an onset of diarrhea and vomiting in under an hour whereas salmonella takes on average 2-4 days to produce possible symptoms of abdominal cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, chills, malaise, nausea, and/or headache.
Foodborne illness is not usually (although sometimes can be) caused by the last thing you ate, and the flu does not usually (but sometimes can) produce vomiting and diarrhea in adults. Next time you’re puking your guts out, if you can manage to concentrate, you might have to make a longer grocery list of items in your diet. Was it what you had three days ago? Might’ve been.
