Katie Overbey: March gastro madness

Katie Overbey, a food science graduate student at NC State who focuses on food safety communication and norovirus writes:

Basketball has been on my mind a lot this past week and I’ve wondered a few times what would happen if a team participating in the NCAA tournament fell victim to norovirus? Today, I got my answer.ncaa-san-diego-st-duke-basketball.jpeg10-620x412

San Diego State men’s basketball players and coaches got a bit more March Madness than they were counting on this past weekend when members of the team came down with GI illnesses before their game against Duke on Sunday. According to Fox Sports, multiple players, as well as the head coach, experienced symptoms, which sounds like norovirus (but wasn’t confirmed).

The trouble began when senior guard Aqeel Quinn came down with what the team thought was a case of food poisoning after eating a turkey sandwich Thursday.

Head athletic trainer Tom Abdenour said he started hearing that others weren’t feeling well by Saturday evening.

“Coach Fisher said he wasn’t feeling well after practice, then … there’s a text from this one, text from that one,” he said. “It was, ‘Wait a second, what’s going on here?'”

Abdenour said Fisher and assistant coach Brian Dutcher needed IVs on Sunday, while several players told him they weren’t feeling well at breakfast.

Abdenour said radio play-by-play announcer Ted Leitner was also battling the bug.

“That’s not fun to deal with that, but that had no impact on how we competed, what we did, how we played,” Fisher said. “That had no bearing on it.”

Intense GI distress of the norovirus variety doesn’t usually leave me in peak physical condition.