An ongoing inspection in the Hotel Barceló Playa Tambor has revealed traces of salmonella in the hotel’s chicken.
The Tico Times in San Jose, Costa Rica, reports the hotel was closed on Dec. 26 after 80 hotel guests reported gastrointestinal problems. According to Health Minister María Luisa Avila, salmonella was not detected in any of the patients, (1).jpg)
but they were determined to have the norovirus. The hotel will remain closed through the weekend and investigations will resume Monday.
I thought rugby match cocktail parties only happened with cans of Brockman’s beer after the games; I have seen Invictus. It’s the way hockey players do it – especially the girls.
The Institut de Veille Sanitaire in France reports today (thanks Albert) that on Feb. 20, 2010, the Fire and Rescue Service of the Hérault district informed the Regional 
Health Authorities that symptoms such as stomach ache, nausea, vomiting were diagnosed among around 15 people taking part in a rugby match cocktail party.
One person was taken to the local emergency hospital service. … A total of 94 cases and 110 controls were reported among the people taking part in the cocktail party. Two successive epidemic events were identified with distinct symptoms and median incubation periods of 3.5 and 30 hours. The results of the epidemiological, biological and veterinary investigations were in favor of an intoxication of the early cases due to the ingestion of knuckle of ham pieces contaminated by Staphylococcus aureus (OR=3.75; IC=[1.91; 7.35] p=0.001) and an intoxication of late cases due to the ingestion of oyster contaminated by Norovirus (OR=32.22; IC=[7.09 ; 146.34] p<0.001). In this investigation, food and pathogens at the origin of the contamination were 
identified. This outbreak stresses the importance of respecting hygiene measures in collective catering and defining first management measures as soon as the results of the investigation are known.
Full report only in French, http://www.invs.sante.fr/publications/2010/Tiac/Rapport%20Tiac.pdf
The Hamilton Spectator (that’s in Ontario, Canada) reports this morning that public health types received 40 calls Friday from people who were sick after eating food from the downtown Druxy’s Famous Deli Sandwiches earlier this week.
All of them ate food from the deli on Tuesday or Wednesday and showed a similar range of symptoms to the 33 people who became sick with gastrointestinal illness or .png)
stomach flu at a corporate event catered by Druxy’s Tuesday, said Dr. Chris Mackie, one of the city’s associate medical officers of health.
The symptoms include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, he said.
Public health temporarily closed the deli at Jackson Square Thursday afternoon after they suspected two ill employees serving at a corporate Christmas party contaminated the food. The department found Druxy’s did not have hot water for workers to wash their hands properly.
The downtown deli has catered three other events since Monday. Some of the new 40 patients had attended one of these functions, Mackie said.
Public health has collected some samples and should know what pathogen is involved likely by Monday, he said.
My friend Roy, who knows a lot more about food safety than I do, lamented on a mailing list for food safety nerds today that food safety doesn’t resonate in Washington, D.C., and doesn’t resonate in the public health community, falling somewhere in importance between “cross-gendered health, and sleep disorders.”
He’s right. Food safety stuff is completely overwhelmed by food porn – like this puff piece in today’s N.Y. Times, which gushes,
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“Heston Blumenthal is one of the most forward-thinking chefs in the world.”
So forward thinking that he managed to sicken 529 diners at his flagship Fat Duck restaurant in the U.K., in part by letting sick workers work, spreading things around. And he still hasn’t accepted responsibility.
“For Christmas at home, Blumenthal — no stranger to creating a life-size gingerbread house with praline rose marshmallow bricks and white chocolate mortar — usually cooks goose or a Bresse capon. But for the last two years the family has gone skiing in Courmayeur, Italy. ‘There’s a restaurant near the top of the mountain, where we’ll have a Tuscan roast stuffed turkey dish, spaghetti with white truffle and a bottle of Guado al Tasso — and ski in the afternoon. Just fantastic.’”
That’s nice, but Heston will always be noro-boy to me.
The Lee County Health Department has concluded that norovirus caused dozens of people to fall ill earlier this month at a Lee County Public Schools fundraiser.
But it will likely be up to a week before the department concludes how it (7).jpg)
was spread, aid Robert South, department epidemiologist.
About 200 people attended the 15th Annual Take Stock in Children Holiday Auction on Nov. 4 at Paseo Village Center.
Shortly thereafter, attendees reported a number of ailments, including nausea and diarrhea.
The department still does not know if the virus spread was the result of food poisoning or improper food handling.
Persistent problems with norovirus has lead Danish authorities to recommend that frozen berries be cooked before consuming.
Food Administration recommends caterers and institutions which prepare food for children, elderly and sick, to heat treat all kinds of frozen berries. The recommendation applies only to frozen berries and not the fresh berries.
Norovirus has been found in shellfish from the Waitara region of New Zealand. Heston Blumenthal of the Fat Duck and host of a norovirus outbreak that sickened 529 patrons in the U.K. in 2009 is going to New Zealand to help prepare a $7,000-a-plate dinner in March 2011.
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Careful with that raw shellfish.
Taranaki’s Medical Officer of Health Dr Greg Simmons, said,
"The issue with norovirus is that the infectious dose, in other words, the amount of viral particles you need to consume in order to develop an illness is quite low, so there is a potential risk there. That risk to me would be unacceptable, and I wouldn’t expect other people to expose themselves to that risk."
The virus was found during testing for a resource consent application by New Plymouth District Council, which wants to continue piping Waitara’s partially-treated sewerage into the sea.
One sample had moderate levels of human strains of norovirus – four others had low levels.
Dr Simmons ordered the council to erect signs on Waitara’s beach advising of the hazard.
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Australian chef Neil Perry has enticed close friends Heston Blumenthal, the British star of TV cooking show Heston’s Feast, and American Thomas Keller, the creator of The French Laundry restaurant in California, to create a six-course degustation dinner on March 26 next year.
A seat at the table will set each couple back at least $7000 – which includes a three-night stay at the five-star resort near Napier.
Dozens of tri-delts who became sick after a meal at their University of Michigan sorority house were stricken with norovirus.
The Detroit Free Press reports lab results released Wed. by the Washtenaw County Public Health Department confirmed norovirus. Spokeswoman Susan .jpg)
Cerniglia, said the outbreak was “most likely,” the result of food poisoning, but the virus also may have been transmitted through personal contact or shared surfaces at the Delta Delta Delta house near the university.
There are three separate clusters of norovirus associated with raw oysters making people barf in the Vancouver area (that’s in Canada) but, as usual, no details were provided by health types on actual numbers of people sick.
CBC News reports the B.C. Centre for Disease Control has confirmed that .jpg)
an outbreak of illness related to eating uncooked Pacific Coast oysters is being caused by a norovirus.
The affected oysters have been traced to a section of Effingham Inlet on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The oysters were harvested between Sept. 7 and Sept. 21.
Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal’s latest attempt at PR salvation in this morning’s Daily Mail is another crass and superficial effort to blame others for the March 2009 norovirus outbreak that sickened 529 at The Fat Duck .jpg)
restaurant. Heston has a memory of convenience in yet another quest for salvation and, sympathy while pushing a new fancy restaurant and cookbook. Here’s a reminder.
“I thought my world was caving in.”
So did the 529 people barfing and confirmed as having norovirus from your Fat Duck.
“I’m just a chef who likes asking lots of questions.”
Not enough questions – like where those oysters came from, and if I’m going to use them in dishes such as jelly oyster with passion fruit and lavender, should they be cooked so people don’t barf?
“Blumenthal is still seething about the report into the incident published 12 months ago by the Health Protection Agency (HPA), which he believes maligns his £150-a-head establishment and his business methods. ‘The report insinuated things that I found very frustrating. For example, that staff were back at work while they were physically ill. Our staff training manual very clearly lays out a 48-hour return-to-work policy – you don’t come back until 48 hours after you feel better.’”
At the time of the outbreak, Blumethal reported conducting his own testing of staff and customers, and stated “so far it is categorically not food poisoning." Wrong.
Blumenthal also tried out the but-our-training-manual-says defense last year. The quotes are eerily similar to what he said in 2009. Maybe they were just lifted.
The HPA report did state ongoing transmission at the restaurant—leading to illnesses from January 6 to February 22—was thought to have occurred through continuous contamination of foods prepared in the restaurant or by person-to-person spread between staff and diners or a mixture of both. Investigators identified several weaknesses in procedures at the restaurant may have contributed to ongoing transmission including: delayed response to the incident, the use of inappropriate environmental cleaning products, and staff working when ill. Up to 16 of the restaurant’s food handlers were reportedly working with norovirus symptoms before it was voluntarily closed.
“I took the decision to close the restaurant within 24 hours, as a precautionary measure. It was a financial blow but I couldn’t consider money at the time. … I felt desperately sorry for all the people who 
suffered. My instincts were to contact everyone personally and apologise but I was advised against this by my lawyers, insurers and official bodies conducting investigations. It was extremely frustrating, but my hands were tied.”
Blumenthal is arguing he took a financial blow, but wouldn’t risk a financial blow and say I’m sorry, which was the decent human thing to do instead of hiding behind barristers and bureaucrats.
When Blumenthal did finally issue an apology on September 25, 2009—seven months after the outbreak was discovered and more than two weeks after the Health Protection Agency report was released—it suggested that he viewed an empathetic apology as an admission of guilt.
"I am relieved to be able to finally offer my fullest apologies to all those who were affected by the outbreak at the Fat Duck,” said Blumenthal, “It was extremely frustrating to not be allowed to personally apologise (sic) to my guests until now. It was devastating to me and my whole team, as it was to many of our guests and I wish to invite them all to return to the Fat Duck at their convenience [for a free meal]." The apology was too late and again failed to accept responsibility for the aspects of the outbreak that were under the chef’s control—namely, acquiring seafood from unsafe sources and allowing sick employees to handle food.
Television presenter Jim Rosenthal, who was sickened, called Blumenthal’s response, “pathetic.”??
“He has basically attempted to re-write the HPA report and its conclusions in his favour. It is pathetic and a complete PR disaster. There isn’t even a hint of apology.??“ At first I was extremely sympathetic to Heston Blumenthal, but the way this has been mishandled beggars belief. I could not believe what I was reading in this email – it was like we had been sent different reports. I am taking them to court and a lot of other people are too. A simple apology might have ended all this a long time ago.”
Another diner blogged, “I’m appalled because I was so entranced by Heston Blumenthal and he comes across as being very decent and clever. We had been so ill and, at the very least, we expected some kind of acknowledgment. We really thought they would be interested in what had happened to us.”
Boxing promoter Frank Warren commented, "Everything was fabulous about the evening – the food, the setting, the service, it was unbelievably good but unfortunately, afterwards, all of us were ill. … Since then we have not heard anything from the restaurant at all. I am very disappointed and I know that the people I went with are very disappointed with the feedback"
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Blumenthal is now gearing up for the opening of a lavish new restaurant, Dinner, at London’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel in December. He is also working on a new, simpler cookbook, Heston At Home, which will be out in a year’s time.
Heston, you need to get a lot better at this PR thing if you expect either to sell.
My “mind went to dark places.”
We’ve all been to dark places; grow a pair and admit what went wrong rather than incessantly whining while promoting. Then maybe you’ll get some sympathy.