Norovirus suspected in luncheon illnesses

Lab test results expected next week; E. coli ruled out

May 14, 2010
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By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

May 14, 2010 0

Waukesha - While the Waukesha County Health Division hasn't ruled out other causes and has no confirmed lab tests yet, a norovirus is a likely culprit behind the gastrointestinal illness reported by 100 or more people who attended a charitable luncheon at the Country Springs Hotel this week.

"Norovirus seems to be likely," Julianne Klimetz, spokeswoman for the health investigators, said Friday. She stressed, however, that results of lab tests on samples won't be known until next week. E. coli bacteria was ruled out as a cause Friday.

Another 50 people who became ill after Tuesday's Women of Distinction awards luncheon had called the department early Friday on the heels of dozens of others reported Thursday.

About 500 attended the lunch, which raised money for the Women and Girls Fund of the Waukesha County Community Foundation and honored women leaders in the county. Anecdotally, the Journal Sentinel has heard from attendees who said at least half and often more of the guests at their 10-person tables became ill with intestinal distress.

The Health Division has a list of attendees and where each person sat. They've obtained a sufficient sample of cases and are following up with interviews, Klimetz said.

The majority of people reported becoming ill Wednesday night and Thursday, she said.

"From everything we've seen, it's been confined to a single meal, a single room and a single kitchen," she said. There's no indication that those affected were in a certain part of the room and only at certain tables, she said.

The Environmental Health Division is working with the Country Springs Hotel in Waukesha, which Klimetz said has been "incredibly cooperative."

Klimetz said she was not aware of any hospitalizations resulting from the outbreak.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site, the norovirus usually includes nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. Some who are infected can have a low-grade fever, chills, headache, muscle aches and tiredness. The illness usually comes on suddenly, within 24 to 48 hours of exposure, with symptoms lasting one or two days. Dehydration can easily occur.

The infection can spread, according to the CDC, by eating food or drinking liquids contaminated with norovirus, by touching surfaces contaminated with it and placing an infected hand in one's mouth, or by having direct contact with an infected person.

People infected with norovirus are contagious from the moment they begin feeling ill to at least three days after recovery, the CDC reports, so good hand washing and other hygienic practices should be observed.

About Laurel Walker
Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.
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