Mr. Eva Longoria, professional basketball player Tony Parker, missed San Antonio's game against Houston on Friday night because of what was thought to be foodborne illness.

Parker missed the morning shootaround and remained ill in the hours before the game.

Meanwhile, the U.K. Tottenham Spurs' Champions League bid is in danger of being derailed by a sickness bug - again.

Boss Harry Redknapp said,

"We had a few down with it the other day. Vedran Corluka had the virus and Wilson Palacios was not feeling great with it either. We closed down the training ground and although we trained there, everything else is off limits - the offices and the cafeteria. There will be no food or anything. We just got out on the pitch and got out of there. Other than that it's closed down completely.

Four years ago Spurs were set to finish in the top four under former boss Martin Jol until the squad was caught up in Lasagnegate.

Ten players were affected by illness before their final match at West Ham and although club officials at first blamed a dodgy lasagne it later transpired they had been affected by a norovirus.

Eurosurveillance reports at least 11 linked outbreaks of gastroenteritis with a total of 260 cases have occurred in Denmark in mid January 2010. Investigations showed that the outbreaks were caused by norovirus of several genotypes and by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli. Lettuce of the lollo bionda type grown in France was found to be the vehicle.

From 18 to 20 January 2010, a series of outbreaks of gastroenteritis were reported to Danish authorities. Outbreak investigations were initiated by the Danish food control authority in cooperation with Statens Serum Institut (SSI), the National Food Institute, the Food and Veterinary Administration as well as the medical officers and several clinical microbiological laboratories in Copenhagen. The epidemiological, microbiological and food investigation are still ongoing; here we report on the current status of the investigation of these outbreaks.

The link between lettuce and illness was discovered in the fourth week of January 2010 based on an analysis of five outbreaks. These outbreaks had been reported during week 3 to the regional food control authority, which covers the eastern part of Denmark. As of 8 February, 11 outbreaks have been included in the cluster. A further eight outbreaks in Denmark which are currently under investigation may also be associated with lettuce. Taken together, the 11 outbreaks comprised approximately 480 potentially exposed persons and approximately 260 cases with symptoms of gastroenteritis . The 11 outbreaks all took place in the eastern half of the country (on the islands of Funen and Zealand). Norovirus was initially suspected as the aetiology, but the Kaplan criteria were not fulfilled in all circumstances and attack rates were sometimes higher than expected for norovirus, indicating the possibility of the presence of more than one disease agent.
 

You can’t name a girl Sorenne. That’s what my Danish friends and colleagues told me when I asked about potential names for our daughter. Soren is too masculine in the Scandinavian world.

The Danes also can’t trust French lettuce.

Fodevarestyrelsen reports that Futura Copenhagen A/S initiated a recall of Lollo Bionda lettuce produced in France in Jan. 2010 and sold to wholesalers, restaurants and consumers in Denmark.

“There is a suspicion that the lettuce is contaminated with norovirus (Roskilde virus) and thus may be the cause of more than 200 people the past 14 days has been ill with sickness Roskilde.”
 

Initially reported as an outbreak of foodborne illness among 30 patrons, WRAL reports tonight that up to 280 people have reported becoming ill after eating at Raleigh's 42 St. Oyster Bar in late December. Health authorities also believe that illnesses also might not have been linked to oysters as initially reported. As Norovirus is easily transmissible and needs only a few particles to infect, it will be difficult for investigators to pinpoint the initial source. Health authorities tested eight employees for norovirus and all have been negative for the virus.

42nd Street owner Brad Hurley initially thought the culprit was oysters from Louisiana. As a precaution, the restaurant immediately stopped serving the Louisiana oysters and started using only oysters from North Carolina.

Tests of the remaining Louisiana oysters have come back negative, Andre Pierce, Wake County's environmental health and safety director said.

The restaurant has also worked with the health department to take other precautions, such as eliminating bare hand contact with food and changing from an ammonia sanitizer to chlorine.

Pierce said they may never know the exact source.

"Norovirus is probably one of the most unreported food illnesses out there. It's hard to detect. It's hard to find a source. We spend a lot of time and resources trying to track it down. And it is frustrating to us and it is frustrating to the public that you can't just put a finger on it, but it is very present and I think it's a lot more out there than we realize."

Public vomiting is particularly a problem as the act of spewing can cause particles to spread. Norovirus particles can also stay viable on surfaces for weeks. Pathogens can be passed on by someone even if they aren’t feeling ill. In 2008 a foodhandler who did not show symptoms or test positive for Norovirus caused an outbreak leading to over 30 illnesses. It's believed that the foodhandler, who was caring for ill family members at home, introduced the norovirus into the kitchen by practicing poor personal hygiene.