More than 150 persons have been affected with gastroenteritis and sought medical attention in the Turks and Caicos Islands since the end of April 2012, according to health officials investigating the mysterious sickness that has affected about 12 hotels on the island of Providenciales.
The officials also reported they recently have discovered one case of norovirus, but they noted that this virus cannot be confirmed as the cause of the current outbreak of diarrhea and vomiting.
Scores of passengers on board a luxury cruise liner have had their £2,000 holidays ruined by a sickness outbreak. Around 170 passengers on the Boudicca were hit by the suspected norovirus during its 13-night trip to the Canary Islands. The virus, which causes vomiting and diarrhoea, is highly contagious and those infected were quarantined during the doomed voyage.
The ship, carrying around 828 passengers and 348 crew, was greeted by NHS staff and ambulance crews when it docked in Greenock, Scotland last night.
One passenger told the Daily Mirror: ‘We started calling the ship HMS Holby City.
‘There were two nurses wandering around all the time visiting people, most of them elderly.
‘Half the facilities were shut down and we were even told not to swap quiz sheets to stop the bug spreading.
‘Passengers were offered £150 discounts on their next cruise. We don’t know anyone who accepted.
Noroviruses are an important cause of acute gastroenteritis in humans. We incorporated new insights gained over the past decade in an updated estimate of the disease burden of (foodborne) norovirus illness in The Netherlands in 2009. The disease outcomes – non-consulting cases, visiting a general practitioner, hospitalization and mortality – and the foodborne proportion were derived from cohort studies, surveillance data and literature. Age-specific incidence estimates were applied to the population age distribution in The Netherlands in 2009. The general population incidence was 3800/100 000 (95% CI 2670–5460), including 0·4 fatal cases/100 000, resulting in 1622/100 000 (95% CI 966–2650) disability-adjusted life-years in a population of 16·5 million. The updated burden of norovirus is over twofold higher than previously estimated, due in particular to the new insights in case-fatality ratios. Results suggest that the burden of norovirus institutional outbreaks is relatively small compared to the burden of community-acquired norovirus infections.
Four patients being treated for diarrhoea and vomiting at a hospital in the west of Scotland have died.
Two people suffering from the norovirus stomach bug died just before the weekend at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said there had now been another two deaths. The deaths were caused by underlying medical conditions.
Strict infection control measures have been put in place.
Eight wards at the hospital are not admitting new patients because of the bug.
Area 23, a shellfish harvesting zone off the Louisiana coast roughly equal in size to the city of New Orleans, was closed this week after health officials linked a norovirus outbreak to its oysters.
An investigation into the outbreak that sickened 14 people who ate oysters at a Louisiana restaurant determined that the oysters were tainted before they arrived at the restaurant. Health officials issued a recall of the oysters and the temporary closure of Area 23.
The Vanderburgh County Health Department and the Indiana State Department of Health are investigating a case of Hepatitis A in a food worker at the Lone Star Restaurant located in the Eastland Place Shopping Center at 943 N. Green River Road Evansville IN, 47715-2418.
“We’ve been in contact with Lone Star and we wanted to let people know that they may have been exposed,” Dr. Ray Nicholson, Health Officer for the Health Department said.
Persons who were exposed and unvaccinated can receive a dose of Hepatitis A vaccine to help lessen the effects of the disease or prevent disease if given within 14 days of exposure. Persons who ate or drank at the Lone Star from April 20-April 26, 2012 could have been exposed to Hepatitis A, but should not receive vaccine because it is not effective for exposure past 14 days. Those people should seek medical care if they show symptoms of Hepatitis A.
NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana health officials say they closed a harvesting area and ordered a recall of oysters taken from there since April 26 after 14 people became ill with norovirus. The closure started Tuesday and was expected to last at least three weeks.
The recall includes shucked, frozen, breaded and processed oysters and those for the half-shell market taken from Area 23 in Terrebonne Parish southwest of New Orleans. Some of the oysters were shipped to Maryland, Texas and Georgia.
Health officials said people became ill after eating oysters from that area at one New Orleans-area restaurant.
Sales of norovirus-free oysters at the Cornish Shellfish Co have grown by 100% since an FSA study in November revealed that three quarters of all UK oysters carried the virus.
Cornish Shellfish has been selling its Cornish Assured shellfish for three years. But sales had grown to 3,500 oysters a week since September, a spokesman told The Grocer.
“Chefs like to serve oysters, but you cannot have customers falling ill, especially in high-profile, prestigious restaurants,” said a spokesman.
Posted in Eurofins Laboratories, Food Hygiene, Food Safety, Food Virus, Foodborne Illness, Microbiology, Norovirus, Pathogen
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Another norovirus outbreak at another Mexican restaurant in Fort Wayne, Indiana has been reported. John Silcox, director of Communications for the Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health, confirmed that illness reports from consumers who at at El Azteca Mexican restaurant on State Blvd. were received during the week of April 2, 2012.
Ten complaints have been received about 35 consumers who ate at the restaurant during the potential outbreak timeframe.
A highly contagious stomach flu contracted through touch was the cause of some cases of nausea, diarrhea and chills that afflicted players and staff at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in March.
The illness knocked several top players out of the world-class BNP event at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
“Some individuals were tested and we did have some positive results for norovirus,” said Barbara Cole, director of disease control for the Riverside County Department of Health.
Posted in Eurofins Laboratories, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Virus, Microbiology, outbreak, Pathogen
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