Working while ill is a bad idea

When I was a kid, my dad made me watch the Yankees. So I became a Mets fan

My parents made me listen to the Beatles, and told me they were good.images

I rebelled. I got into Run DMC and the Beastie Boys instead.

Maybe it’s just me, but telling someone what to do doesn’t usually work out.

I don’t know the answer to food handlers showing up to work with foodborne illness symptoms. It seems to happen even with paid sick leave (see Chipotle’s noro outbreak in Boston). An organization has to also make it okay for employees to use the sick leave.

Providing it but ostracizing those who use it is sorta useless.

CBC reports that ill food handlers are involved in yet another norovirus outbreak

The most likely cause of the recent outbreak of illness at the Delta Hotel is staff who were ill with the Norwalk virus while serving or doing food preparation, says P.E.I.’s chief public health officer.

After three Christmas parties at the Delta in Charlottetown in early December, 134 guests reported being ill.

Dr. Heather Morrison said 35 Delta staff also reported being ill, and four stool samples from staff and guests have come back positive for Norwalk, also known as norovirus.

Provincial senior environmental health officer Ryan Neale said there is no way, in the early incubation stages of the virus, to reduce the risk of transmission of norovirus to zero, although handwashing and good use of gloves can help.

Morrison said the hotel has enhanced its cleaning and adjusted its food handling practices, including the types of food being prepared for buffets, but she doesn’t know of anything the hotel could have done to avoid the outbreak.

Not having ill staff show up and handle food might have helped.

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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.