Lab results: It was definitely the norovirus that made 15 people sick
FOREST GROVE, Ore. - Lab results have confirmed that norovirus was to blame for 15 people falling ill after a State Forests Advisory meeting in Forest Grove.
Fifteen people got sick at the meeting on March 15.
One person who was at the meeting, 43-year-old Kevin Weeks of McMinnville, died but the state medical examiner determined that the norovirus wasn't to blame. An exact cause of death was not given but the medical examiner said "it is safe to say that Mr. Weeks did not die from norovirus."
The suspected source is some fresh fruit that was served at the meeting. Health officials say it was likely contaminated during preparation or at the event. The caterer is cooperating with health investigators while they try to figure out how the fruit became tainted.
Norovirus is highly contagious and causes vomiting, diarrhea and a feeling of unusual tiredness. Health people normally recover in a day or two, but frail elderly and young children can get dangerously sick.
You can get norovirus from an infected person, contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces. The best way to prevent the spread of norovirus is to practice proper handwashing, especially after using the bathroom and before eating or preparing food.
Hey this fruit tastes like crap.!!!
Oh well....
free food comes with a heavy price
"The caterer is cooperating with health investigators while they try to figure out how the fruit became tainted."
Why waste the time, energy and money. The norovirus is everywhere and runs its course every year.
Because.........Somebody forgot to wash their hands.
@Billy Batts No, not necessarily. Norovirus is tough, and it takes just a tiny amount of virus in the air or on any surface, or even a hug or a handshake, to transmit.
Typical cleaners and soaps aren't sufficient - it must have chlorine, like bleach. People are contagious for a time before they ever come down sick, and they're still contagious for days, and possibly weeks, afterward. The virus is shed through your skin - it doesn't require fecal/vomit contact.
A particularly nasty strain has been going around OR/WA the last couple of months - and unfortunately, getting it once doesn't make you immune. I've been bleach-watering all high-contact surfaces in my house for literally weeks, to reduce the chance that someone will manage to get it again. (In our close-family ecosystem, we have two infants, two elderly, and one fragile immune-wise - and so far this winter we've totalled about six hospitalizations over that rotten stuff, and have given up counting lost work hours.)
It doesn't matter how careful you are; you have to be lucky, too, at least when it's as prevalent as it is now.
@starshadow @Billy Batts It is nasty. We had it in our house and put ourselves in a self quarantine . This year we had flu shots and the sickness was not as severe as when we did not have flu shots