35 sick after buffet at UW-Madison

Thirty-five people reported symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea after sharing a buffet line at the Pyle Center at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

A spokeswoman for UW Extension, which runs the conference center, told the Wisconsin State Journal they fell ill a day after eating lunch Thursday in the Pyle Center’s Alumni Lounge. She says the same food was served to four other groups at the center, as well as to employees and visitors in the nearby Lowell Center, and no one from those locations reported symptoms.

Norovirus strikes Wisconsin residence, cruise ship … me?

I don’t know what I have (right, exactly as shown), but can sympathize with the people quoted below.

University of Wisconsin freshman Ibrahim Balkhy contracted norovirus Sunday morning, saying,

“There was lots of puking and diarrhea — it was hell. All I have eaten are saltines.”

Between 20 and 30 residents of Sellery 6A, one of UW’s largest residence halls, have been fighting the virus since Thursday.

Craig Roberts, an epidemiologist for University Health Services, said the norovirus spreads through stool-to-mouth contact. It enters through the mouth and is passed via the stool or vomit of an infected person.

So don’t eat poop
.

Meanwhile, 260 passengers and 17 crew members on board the Holland America Line M.S. Zuiderdam, have come down with norovirus

Brampton, Ontario, resident Ken Ould, 78, said that five days into his transatlantic cruise, the projectile vomiting and diarrhea started.

By the time he and the other 1,819 passengers and 794 crew disembarked in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday, he had missed three ports of call, and spent five days confined to his cabin with his wife Joyce.

Now, if you’ll excuse me …