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Norovirus

Not sure we didn’t get it earlier this year, symptoms were similar, but mild. We never went to the clinic to get looked at since it was mild symptoms. Thought it was a stomach bug, but seemed to last longer. My wife had it, then I got it. Took about a week to get over.
 
Over the years I investigated dozens and dozens of Norovirus outbreaks. Most of the ones I investigated could not be traced to a specific food source i.e. we could not specifically identify what caused people to be sick, i.e. the smoking gun. Those that were identified were oysters and vegetables on salad bars, particularly lettuce. Notice these items are highly perishable and are not likely to be available for analysis after the time has elapsed for the ill person to become ill, go to the doctor or emergency room, complain to a health authority and have the health authority conduct the investigation. That lettuce is either composting in the landfill or converted to animal feed. Norovirus is the most common foodborne illness with estimates of more than 20 million cases each year in the U.S.

Many times these foods are contaminated by a human carrier through improper hand sanitation. Salad bars and fresh oysters are two of the worst sources and both have a lot of hand contact at various points in the harvest, transportation, distribution and preparation areas. Salad bars are usually prepared and stocked by one of the lowest paid people in the foodservice establishment and have the least sanitation training. They may be sick but cannot afford to take the time off and they "don't really feel that bad". They are slicing and dicing vegetables and can contaminate the entire salad bar. Couple that with the sanitation habits of people who are serving themselves from the salad bar and you have a greater potential for an outbreak. I don't eat from salad bars.

I use to teach food safety and according to the CDC 50-60% of the Norovirus outbreaks were associated with infected foodservice workers. Norovirus is a persistent little bugger and can live on work surfaces for weeks. Refrigeration including freezing does nothing to impede Norovirus. An infected food should not be eaten unless it is cooked to 140 degrees or higher. Few people cook their salad ingredients. Oysters can be cooked but cross contamination in the kitchen of raw and cooked is always possible.

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Hydrate hydrate hydrate. Dilute gatorade is good, nuun tablets in water are good, runners electrolyte mix in water is good, I use light sugar+lemon flavoring with a pinch of regular (sodium) and lite (potassium) salt a lot because I'm cheap (doesn't have magnesium but.. works pretty well)...
 
Leo Voisine said:
I have it. Diane works in an assisted living place where there was an outbreak. She got it pretty bad then I got it. Never heard of it, but I looked it up. Everything that Mike said.

I had a headache, feel run down, a little diareah but no vomit and not as bad as Diane.

I just plain old drink lots of water all day every day anyway.
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I follow the advice of WC Fields when it comes to water. He said, "Water, never drink the stuff. Fish make love in it.":p:ROFLMAO:
 
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