When outbreaks of foodborne illness are suspected, health types struggle with how much information to publicly provide and when. There are so many uncertainties, and every situation has its own specifics based on potential future exposure, lethality of the agent, and getting it wrong. There aren’t any guidelines, and every county, state and federal department seems to make it up with each outbreak.

What about the collateral damage?

The St. Petersburg Times reports this morning that two days after the Hernando County Health Department (that’s in Florida, north of Tampa) issued an alert that people had gotten sick after eating at an unidentified restaurant on U.S. 19 in Spring Hill, independent restaurant owners along the busy corridor began to feel the ripple effects of the announcement.

Nadia Gauthier, manager of The Restaurant, said Thursday that business dropped by nearly half of what she was expecting as word quickly spread through the community.

"People were definitely talking about it," Gauthier said from the eatery at 3438 Commercial Way. "It seemed like they were scared to eat in a restaurant."

In the following days, concerned diners flooded the Health Department and local media with calls. Most demanded the name of the suspect eatery, noting that by not identifying the place, it painted all Spring Hill restaurants with unfair suspicion.

C.P. Damon, owner of Nellie’s Restaurant in Weeki Wachee, said he saw a 50 percent decline in business.

"It hurt us really bad," Damon said. "Our customers stopped coming because they thought they were going to get sick eating here."

Perhaps his worst day was St. Patrick’s Day, when his staff had prepared corned beef and cabbage for what he expected would be a robust holiday crowd. By 3 p.m., Damon decided to send two cooks and other workers home.

On Wednesday, the Health Department confirmed that more than 100 people had been stricken with norovirus after dining at or coming in contact with someone who dined at Kally K’s Steakery & Fishery, 3383 Commercial Way, Spring Hill.

But when the agency released its original alert on March 15, it declined to name the restaurant, citing its ongoing joint investigation with the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Damon thought that was bad policy.

"It became a guessing game that was based on a lot of rumors," Damon said. "No one wants to eat where they think they’re going to get sick. And with no way of knowing, they just stopped coming."

In a statement, Health Department spokeswoman Ann-Gayl Ellis defended the agency on Thursday, saying, "In any event of this type, until the health department has confirmed clinical results that provide a credible link to the source, it will not issue specific information on the restaurant in question."

Does that apply to something like a listeria outbreak, with its 30 per cent kill rate? Doubtful.

Kally K’s manager Christina Malo said her restaurant has suffered as well, and laments that so many people were affected by the norovirus.