Almost 2100 sickened: Noro in dried seaweed in Japan, 2017

Seven foodborne norovirus outbreaks attributable to the GII.P17-GII.17 strain were reported across Japan in 2017, causing illness in a total of 2,094 persons. Nori (dried shredded seaweed) was implicated in all outbreaks and tested positive for norovirus. Our data highlight the stability of norovirus in dehydrated food products.

Foodborne outbreaks caused by human norovirus GII.P17-GII.17-contaminated Nori, Japan, 2017

Emerging Infections Diseases, Volume 24, Issue 5, May 2018,  https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2405.171733

Naomi Sakon, Kenji Sadamasu, Takayuki Shinkai, Yousuke Hamajima, Hideaki Yoshitomi, Yuki Matsushima, Rika Takada, Fumio Terasoma, Asako Nakamura, Jun Komano, Koo Nagasawa, Hideaki Shimizu, Kazuhiko Katayama, and Hirokazu Kimura

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/24/5/17-1733_article

 

Celebrity chefs suck: UK Masterchef winner’s Mexican restraint chain Wahaca loses almost £5 Million after outbreak of noro hit staff and customers forced nine branches to close

This Is Money reports Mexican restaurant chain Wahaca has plunged into a £4.7m loss, blaming a norovirus outbreak which forced it to close nine restaurants.

The chain, which was founded by 2005 MasterChef winner Thomasina Miers, said sinking into the red was partly due to one-off costs of £700,000, which sent profits down from £600,000 a year earlier. Around 160 customers and a quarter of Wahaca’s staff were taken ill in October 2016 after it was hit by an ‘unprecedented’ outbreak of Norovirus.  

In all 18 of the 25 restaurants were hit and 11 including Canary Wharf, Covent Garden, Oxford Circus, Soho and White City, all in London, had to close. 

Wahaca co-founder Mark Selby later admitted it ‘changed the way they did business’.

He said July last year: ‘We’ve had to make some tough calls with our suppliers. We’ve had to say, we have to have absolute visibility or we can’t work with you.
At one stage we thought we were going to have to close every restaurant for four weeks,’ says Selby. ‘During that time sales plummeted 45 per cent, but if I’d had to close all sites, I don’t see how we would have survived.’ 

Selby got together with Thomasina Miers, the 2005 winner of the BBC’s MasterChef series, and together they opened the first Wahaca in Covent Garden in 2007.

Another worry for the chain is immigration post-Brexit. Only a quarter of Wahaca’s 1,200 staff are British. 

Selby said: ‘[We] opened in Chichester and found it really hard to find staff to work there, even in management.’  

Raw is risky: At least 40 sick linked to 2 Canadian oyster farms

Two B.C. Vancouver Island oyster farms have been closed following an outbreak of norovirus associated with eating the raw shellfish.

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control says about 40 cases of acute gastrointestinal illness have been connected to the consumption of raw oysters since March. Testing has confirmed some of the cases were norovirus.

Federal officials with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) confirmed the affected farms are located on the east coast of Vancouver Island at Deep Bay and Denman Island.

While the two farms are no longer harvesting oysters for consumption, no recall of oysters has been issued by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

While the precise sources of contamination have not been identified, human sewage in the marine environment is currently believed to be the most plausible cause of shellfish contamination, according to BCCDC epidemiologist Marsha Taylor.

In late 2016 and early 2017, more than 400 norovirus cases associated with raw or undercooked B.C. oysters led to the closure of 13 farms.

The outbreak was declared over in April 2017. Human sewage was also suspected as the cause.

In order to kill norovirus and other pathogens, the BCCDC recommends consumers cook oysters thoroughly, to an internal temperature of 90 C for 90 seconds. Consumption of raw oysters is not encouraged.

Use a tip sensitive thermometer and stick it in.

And stop eating raw: It’s just a put on.

(The video is from The Who’s farewell concert in Toronto in 1982, which I watched in my girlfriend’s residence in 1982 at uni, but they’re still around to make a buck, just like food hacks. At least Towsend had tales to tell)

Over 20 affected by outbreak of stomach virus in Norway

The Norwegian Tourist Association (DNT) reported on Sunday that cases of a contagious stomach virus have broken out at some cabins at Hardangervidda. A total of 23 people were affected, reported the association

“It’s a hard problem when our people at our cabins get sick. We do our best to take care of them,” said Henning Hoff Wikborg, CEO of DNT Oslo and Omegn in a press release on Sunday.

Those who are ill have been isolated in their own room, and have access to their own toilet, or have been transported and accommodated in hotels, according to Wikborg.

 

114 sick: Norovirus at Vermont restaurant

From Norway to Vermont, Norovirus can strike anywhere, including the Windjammer Restaurant in South Burlington, Vt.

Health officials now say 114 cases can be tied to the South Burlington restaurant. They say 108 people got sick by eating there. The other six fell ill by coming into contact with someone who ate at the restaurant.

The Vermont Department of Health says it is hearing about more cases but they happened prior to the restaurant closing down last Friday.

The eatery reopened Sunday.

Probably noro: Over 20 people affected by outbreak of stomach virus in Norway

The Norwegian Tourist Association (DNT) reported on Sunday that 23 people were affected by a stomach virus at Hardangervidda. The sick have been isolated from other patients.

The Norwegian Tourist Association (DNT) reported on Sunday that cases of a contagious stomach virus have broken out at some cabins at Hardangervidda. A total of 23 people were affected, reported the association

“It’s a hard problem when our people at our cabins get sick. We do our best to take care of them,” said Henning Hoff Wikborg, CEO of DNT Oslo and Omegn in a press release on Sunday.

Those who are ill have been isolated in their own room, and have access to their own toilet, or have been transported and accommodated in hotels, according to Wikborg.

Hordaland Red Cross have taken 15 people from Hardangervidda, and the municipality in Eidfjord fears an outbreak of ‘norovirus’, wrote Bergens Tidende newspaper on Sunday. Symptoms of the stomach virus are nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhoea.

Toilets’ water tanks confirmed to have caused norovirus in Pyeongchang

South Korea’s public health authorities have confirmed that the “water tanks of portable toilets” were the reason behind an outbreak of norovirus at the host city of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics that affected around 300 security personnel for the event last month. 

The authorities announced Sunday that the water tanks of mobile toilets were what caused the norovirus infection as a result of its epidemiological investigation of Horeb Youth Camp Center and other related facilities. According to the investigation, the genotype of the virus detected in water tanks was matched with those of patients. There had been around 570 portable lavatories set up during the Olympic period and ironically, water used to wash hands or brush teeth before leaving a toilet for the sake of hygiene was the culprit of infection.

In Indonesia, an elementary school teacher in Cempedak Lobang village, North Sumatra, appears to have escaped severe punishment, despite forcing one of her students to engage in a revolting punishment that could have easily endangered his health.

Last week, the parents of a student, identified by his initials MB, complained about their kid’s teacher, a woman with the initials RM, who subjected their son to needlessly vile corporal punishment simply because he didn’t bring his homework to school.

“My son was told to lick the toilet 12 times. But after four licks, he vomited,” said SH, MB’s mother, as quoted by Kompas yesterday.

(Considering the state of the toilet as shown in the picture below, it’s surprising that MB managed to get in any licks before throwing up…)

Kids stricken with food poisoning at a school camp

Nothing is worse than when your child is ill. My son was recently sick with norovirus resulting in a plethora of explosions from both ends. My wife and I took the necessary precautions to avoid getting sick-frequent handwashing and sanitizing cause I realize how contagious this virus can be. Thankfully it worked.

A number of kids were ill at a school camp from food poisoning and one child was prescribed antibiotics. Let’s hope that tests were undertaken first to determine that the cause was bacterial and not viral…..

Riaan van Zyl reports

At least two Fairlands parents are upset with the way a primary school dealt with a food poisoning incident that occurred when their son went on a school camp.
The children were supposed to go on the camp from 5 until 9 March. But on 8 March, the school informed the father that his son and approximately seven other children were on their way home because “they were sick”. When the father went to fetch his son, he immediately took him to the doctor who informed him that the boy had food poisoning. Not only was the boy prescribed strong antibiotics but as a precautionary measure he was also treated for listeriosis.
What upset him and his wife is the delay in informing the parents that their children were ill. “If the children already started getting sick on Tuesday, why were we not informed and why were the children not taken to a doctor and only sent home on the Thursday?” His son also told him that about 30 children became ill, but then he found out that it allegedly was closer to 60 plus two adults.
He is now demanding answers but said the principal is giving him the runaround.
The school declined to comment and referred the Record to the Gauteng Department of Education.

17 new cases of Norovirus at the Winter Olympics

There’s a reason why people panic when they hear norovirus. It is extremely contagious and difficult to control. I’ve had it and the plethora of pain that accompanies it is not pleasant.

IOL reports:

Norovirus cases at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics have risen to nearly 200, organisers said on Monday, despite an intense battle to contain the outbreak.
Seventeen new cases have taken the total to 194, although 147 of those affected have already been released from quarantine, they said.
About 1,200 security guards were quarantined and replaced by hundreds of soldiers when the highly contagious bug first came to light last week.
Officials say they are doing everything they can to stop more people getting the virus, which causes diarrhoea and vomiting and can be spread by contaminated food and water.
Any illness spreading to the competitors would be a major embarrassment to hosts South Korea.

Norovirus-contaminated raspberries likely caused deaths, sickened hundreds, in Quebec last summer

Frozen raspberries imported from China made hundreds of people sick in Quebec last summer and probably resulted in multiple deaths, according to a recent public health report. 

The infected fruits led to a wave of recalls in August 2017 by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency because they had been used by a variety of food processors such as brewers, pastry chefs and ice cream makers and had been cooked in hospital cafeterias and residences for seniors.

The raspberries were contaminated by Norovirus. At least 724 Quebecers fell ill, a number that may represent just “the tip of the iceberg” 

According to Dr. Yves Jalbert, director of public health protection at the Quebec health ministry, it is clear that there were deaths over this period. No specific number has been given. Public health officials in Quebec do not track the progress of each infected patient.