Norovirus sucks – diarrhea in the first class aisle edition

Not to be outdone by Campylobacter, Norovirus (I think) made an appearance at our house a couple of weeks ago.  It started with Jack, who yacked for a couple of days, spread to Dani and me, and then my dad (who was visiting) had the unfortunate pleasure of spending a couple of days on the toilet.  Following the bout of extra-loose poop, he was pretty weak and dehydrated so I took him golfing in the 60F early March North Carolina weather and I beat him for the first time ever.

It still counts.

At the end of the week Dad got on a plane and flew back to Canada with me joking all the way to the airport about how messy a noro-laden plane ride could be.

Although I’d describe my poop and barf-related imagination as pretty good, I couldn’t have dreamt up the scenario that unfolded on a plane leaving Boston bound for Los Angeles in October 2008 (as reported in Clinical Infectious Diseases via CIDRAP).

Members of [the] tour group experienced diarrhea and vomiting throughout an airplane flight from Boston, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles, California, resulting in an emergency diversion 3 h after takeoff.

The problematic flight departed Boston on Oct 8, 2008, heading for Los Angeles and carrying among its passengers 35 members of a leaf-peeping tour group. (Four more members of the group had planned other routes home, while two had been hospitalized in the previous 2 days.)

Multiple illnesses, I can imagine; Lard-Ass Hogan style barfing, sure. A passenger with “multiple episodes of diarrhea, with at least 1 occurring in the aisle of the first-class section. The soiled aisle was not cleaned until after completion of the flight." No.

I’m just glad I didn’t get a call from my dad saying that he had an episode of diarrhea in the first class aisle. That would have been an awkward conversation.
 

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About Ben Chapman

Dr. Ben Chapman is a professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. As a teenager, a Saturday afternoon viewing of the classic cable movie, Outbreak, sparked his interest in pathogens and public health. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers, and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, maybe not surprisingly, Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman.