Norovirus Lawyer & Attorney : Marler Clark : Norovirus Blog

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Public health officials say they have three laboratory-confirmed cases of Norwalk Virus - also known as Norovirus - identified in Vermilion County. Environmental Health Director Kolby Riggle said, "This means the virus is present in our community and we are encouraging everyone to use more care washing their hands."

Riggle says hand washing is always important, but becomes even more critical when Norwalk virus is present within a community. "Careful, thorough hand washing is really your only defense against the Norwalk Virus," Riggle says. "It is especially important to use care when washing your hands before preparing or eating food," Riggle adds, noting "Anyone who works in the food service industry needs to take special care to properly wash their hands before handling, preparing or serving food."

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February 28, 2006
By Yelena Kibasova

Students who don't wash their hands after using the bathroom might be eating more than they bargained for during their next meal.

Reported cases of noroviruses this year have increased in Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Health has received 35 reports of the viral infection since the beginning of the year.

Noroviruses are spread primarily person to person or through the contamination of food prepared by an ill person.

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DAVID BALE
27 February 2006

An outbreak of the winter vomiting bug Norovirus has forced two wards at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to be closed to visitors.

The hospital believes the infection was brought into the hospital by a visitor, and has closed Holt and Hethel wards.

The Norovirus stomach bug (also known as gastroenteritis) causes nausea and/or diarrhoea and is very easily spread from person to person.

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February 24, 2006
MetroValley Newspaper Group

The BC Centre for Disease Control is urging people to pay more attention to hand washing and to step up cleaning of hard surfaces after recording 25 outbreaks of Norovirus since Jan. 1, about half in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley.

Outbreaks of gastro-enteritis caused by Norovirus are common in schools, daycare centres, long-term care facilities and cruise ships, and have also been associated with restaurants, according to a press release from the BCCDC.
Practising good, basic personal hygiene is the key to reducing the spread.
"The best thing anyone can do to reduce their risk of illness is to wash their hands vigourously with soap and water for 20 seconds," Bruce Gamage, infection control consultant with the BCCDC, said in a press release.

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Mon, Feb. 27, 2006
By Melanie Burney
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The stomach virus that forced Washinton Township High School to close early last week is the same one blamed for causing outbreaks on cruise ships and institutions such as hospitals and day-care centers, officials said today.

The finding came as the high school reopened this morning with nearly normal attendance.

School officials reported 92 percent attendance, with 242 students absent today. Normal attendance is about 95 percent.

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WCAU-TV

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Two hospitals in Allentown and Reading and two nursing homes are the latest places being hit by a stomach bug. Slideshow:Facilities Affected By Norovirus

A similar virus outbreak kept 1,399 students home from Washington Township High School in New Jersey Friday. Almost 200 people in Lehigh and Berks County have become sick with what local health officials believe is a norovirus, the same virus that sickened hundreds of passengers on cruise ships several years ago. Norovirus is the name now given to a group of viruses previously called Norwalk. Final tests from the state health department are not due until Monday.

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Sat, Feb. 25, 2006

Nearly 1,400 students and 21 teachers were absent from Washington Twp. High yesterday. Officials collected specimens for testing at a state lab.By Melanie BurneyInquirer Staff WriterIn the second day of an intestinal virus outbreak, Washington Township High School closed early yesterday after nearly half its student body stayed home.

Results of tests to identify the virus are expected next week.

The likely culprit is the norovirus, previously known as the Norwalk virus, said Henry Fraimow, an infectious disease specialist at Cooper University Hospital in Camden. That virus has been blamed for causing outbreaks on cruise ships, in schools, and in institutions such as day-care centers, he said.

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Stephanie Stahl
Reporting

(CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA The question is, what is the Norovirus virus, how dangerous is it and can you protect yourself? CBS 3 Medical Reporter Stephanie Stahl has the answers.

The norovirus has been confirmed in Allentown and at a New Jersey school and they donít appear to be related. Itís basically a stomach flu thatís very contagious.

Noro, or Norwalk Virus first became widely know when it started hitting cruise ships. The gastro-enteritis is extremely contagious.

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2006-02-24

A highly contagious stomach virus is sweeping across the region.
Hundreds are sick, including some children in Allentown.

Close to two hundred people are sick today.
What they've got is a highly contagious stomach virus.
So many people got sick at Lehigh Valley Hospital at 17th and Chew that an entire unit had to be shut down. That unit is still shut down today.

They are not the only ones having problems with this virus today.
At the Cedarbrook Home in South Whitehall Township at least 50 patients and staff have been infected.

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February 24, 2006
Cases at Allentown hospital part of larger problem.
By Ann Wlazelek

Outbreaks of a highly contagious gastrointestinal virus have sickened at least 150 area hospital patients, nursing home residents and staffers caring for them.

''You feel like a dog for two days but the virus is self-limited,'' Allentown Health Director Barbara Stader said. ''There's vomiting, diarrhea and nausea, then it resolves.''

Not sure which virus is causing the symptoms, infectious disease specialists have sent specimens to the state health laboratory for identification. Results are expected today.

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February 22, 2006 thisisbristol.com

Friends and family of patients are being asked not to visit Bristol hospitals if they have been suffering with vomiting or diarrhoea. North Bristol NHS Trust, which runs Frenchay and Southmead Hospitals, is appealing to members of the public to avoid visiting its hospitals if they have the symptoms in the last 48 hours.

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February 22, 2006 TheWMURChannel http://www.thewmurchannel.com/news/7329343/detail.html
(N.H) Test results are expected back on Wednesday for a suspected outbreak of Norwalk virus at a Salem nursing home.
Symptoms first showed up last week at Salemhaven Nursing Home, and about 60 of the nursing home's 102 residents became ill. State health officials were brought in for testing over the weekend.
The home is limiting the number of visitors, and activities have been canceled.
"They're taking all the right steps," said Mary Ann Cooney, director of public health. "In fact, they're being so cooperative, we feel it will be able to be contained shortly."
Officials said the gastrointestinal virus is spread through the air and by touch. Symptoms include diarrhea and vomiting.
Health experts said Norwalk virus is a fairly common virus in residential facilities.

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By Karen Bair The Herald
February 22Ç 2006

A highly contagious stomach virus was the primary cause of an absentee rate of up to 20 percent late last week at Finley Road Elementary School, state health officials said Tuesday.

Two Finley Road samples tested over the weekend by the Department of Health and Environmental Control contained norovirus, an ailment contracted by touching surfaces and putting fingers and or objects in the mouth, said Clair Boatwright, a DHEC spokesperson.

"Younger children touch a lot of surfaces and share things," Boatwright said. "They have less hesitation about putting their hands in their mouth."

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Tue, Feb. 21, 2006
DEBORAH HIRSCHdhirsch@charlotteobserver.com

Absence rates were dropping but still high at Finley Road Elementary in Rock Hill Tuesday after more than 100 students -- about 21 percent of the 486 students -- were home sick Friday.

The Department of Health and Environmental Control identified the likely culprit Tuesday as norovirus in two samples that were taken from the school.

The school district had called in DHEC Thursday morning in response to an outbreak of kids with diarrhea and vomiting. By Friday, 102 students were out, said Susan York, the district's coordinator of school climate.

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February 21, 2006
The Herald (SC)

Two lab samples taken from ill students at Finley Road Elementary School have
tested positing for norovirus, the state Department of Health and Environmental
Control said Tuesday.

Two more samples have arrived for testing but results are not yet available,
DHEC said Tuesday.

Noroviruses are a group of viruses that cause the "stomach flu," including
nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramping. The illness is usually brief,
lasting one or two days.

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By Jana Shortal, KARE 11 News

The sickening part about cold days like these is that people get sick. Just ask Kirk Smith with the Minnesota Department of Health. "It always does increase in the winter, we don't know exactly why," Smith says.

Since the first of the year state health officials have reported 29 outbreaks of norovirus,

The 48-hour stomach bug carries symptoms like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

"We don't know why we have so much this year," Smith says "we just know that it seems like every few years the peak goes higher than what we normally see."

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Feb. 16/06

Commentary from the Food Safety Network

Dr. Douglas Powell

www.foodsafetynetwork.ca

I used to steal toilet paper.

As an undergraduate 25 years ago, and once my girlfriend showed me how to get at the theft-proof rolls in the university centre, the supplies of toilet paper in our household became one less student expense.

My hockey bag is still filled with those little soaps and shampoos from hotel rooms around the globe.

I was the kind of student -- and apparently I'm not alone -- University of Guelph administrators in Canada were worried about when they say that residence students should provide their own handwashing soap.

About a year ago, the university switched to sanitizers instead of soap and paper towels in the residence washrooms because soap dispensers, paper towels and garbage cans went missing.

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Feb 17, 2006

Carrabba's Italian Grill of Delta Township is publicly apologizing for making more than 400 of its customers sick last month. Health officials say sick employees of Carrabba's caused an outbreak of norovirus.

It's a full page ad in the Lansing State Journal, where the president of Carrabba's Italian Grill extends sincere apologies to Lansing and urges victims of the illness outbreak to settle their claims with the restaurant's insurance company, and that's exactly what one woman who got sick says she's doing. Amy Paulis is back on her feet after she says dinner at Carrabba's Italian Grill literally brought her to her knees, unable to feel anything but sickness.

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February 16, 2006
Lansing State Journal (Michigan)

The norovirus outbreak at Carrabba's Italian Grill in Delta Township inspired another outbreak - of restaurant workers, as well as their friends and relatives, eager to tell me why what happened at Carrabba's was bound to happen somewhere.

Many, in fact, expressed surprise that it doesn't happen more often. The reason most often cited: strong disincentives for restaurant workers to stay home when they're sick.

In other words: no work, no pay.

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By MELANIE THOMAS
The State News

More than a dozen diners have filed lawsuits against Delta Township's Carrabba's Italian Grill after becoming ill during the Jan. 28-29 weekend.
The class-action lawsuit, filed Monday in the Eaton County Circuit Court, alleges that Carrabba's management was negligent by requiring a sick employee to work and as a result, more than 400 people became sick, said attorney Greg Liepshutz of the Southfield-based law firm Levine Benjamin.

"The managers created the problem themselves by making that cook work and he got everyone sick," Liepshutz said.

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February 14, 2006
Columbia Basin Herald (Wa.)

EPHRATA -- On Feb. 8 the Grant County Health District received a report of
several illnesses which developed in 29 people who attended a wedding in
Ephrata Feb. 4.

Investigations by health officials have led them to believe the illness may be
caused by the Norovirus, a virus commonly known to cause stomach illness on
cruise ships. Their suspicions were further confirmed Tuesday morning when GCHD officials received word that tests on one individual were positive for
Norovirus.

Transmission of the virus occurs when fecal matter is ingested through the
mouth.

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Seattle food safety expert and victimsí advocate has national reputation for success in food poisoning cases

LANSING, MI (February 13, 2006) ñ Marler Clark will file a lawsuit today against Carrabbaís Italian Grill, the Lansing restaurant that was the source of a Norovirus outbreak that sickened over 400 people in late January and early February, 2006. The lawsuit will be filed in Eaton County Circuit Court, on behalf of a Lansing resident who ate at the restaurant on January 31, 2006, and subsequently became ill with Norovirus.

ìIn this case, it looks like employees at Carrabbaís made egregious food safety violations, which contributed to the spread of Norovirus among patrons of the restaurant,î said William Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark. Marler has represented thousands of victims of major foodborne illness outbreaks across the country since 1993, when he represented the most severely injured survivors of the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak.

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Tony Tagliavia
2/14/2006

If the customer is always right, a local restaurant is in some legal trouble.

Dave Durbin, of East Lansing, filed suit Monday against Carrabba's Italian Grill. He came down with norovirus after eating at the Delta Township restaurant more than two weeks ago.

Durbin says he lost two days' pay when he became violently ill after eating at the Italian chain. He claims Carrabba's could have prevented his missed work, lost pay, and the illness itself.

When Durbin ate at the Carrabba's on West Saginaw on January the 28th -- he didn't eat anything out of the ordinary.

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LOUISE GRAY

THE aggressive norovirus reached record levels in Scotland last year with more than 150,000 people struck down with vomiting, severe stomach cramps and diarrhoea.

Health Protection Scotland (HPS), the organisation that monitors disease in Scotland, recorded 1,552 reports of the winter vomiting bug in 2005, up almost a fifth on the previous year.

But leading microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington said the true number is likely to be "100 times" more as most people do not report the short-lived infection.

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13 February 2006

A hospital ward was closed today and people were asked not to visit patients after an outbreak of winter vomiting bug.

Three elderly patients on West Dereham Ward at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, are affected by norovirus.

At the same time there has been an outbreak of diarrhoea and sickness on the hospital's Rudham children's ward, although this has not been confirmed as being as a result of norovirus.

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February 12, 2006
Lansing State Journal
Alan Miller

DELTA TWP. ó Carrabba's Italian Grill, where 437 diners became ill after eating there on the weekend of Jan. 28-29, has a history of critical violations, according to inspection reports prepared by the Barry-Eaton District Health Department.

The health department confirmed an outbreak of norovirus infection among the restaurant's customers, and the number of reported cases continued to grow for more than a week as diners learned of the association between Carrabba's and their illnesses.

Immediately after they learned of the outbreak, health inspectors say they visited the restaurant on Jan. 30, and reported finding six critical violations, and four repeat violations, along with a number of non-critical violations.

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Tony Tagliavia
February 12, 2006

More than 400 people contracted norovirus after eating at the Delta Township Carrabba's restaurant a couple of weeks ago. Now, a Detroit-area Lawyer is now looking for clients -- so they can sue the restaurant.

After 437 fell ill after dining at Carrabba's, the restaurant was cited for cleanliness violations and for allowing a sick employee to keep working.

Now, a Detroit-area attorney says the restaurant should be held legally responsible for so many coming into contact with the norovirus.

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Friday, 10 February 2006
Press Release: Bay Of Plenty DHB
Hospital still taking precautions over gastro outbreak

An outbreak of gastroenteritis (tummy bug) is still affecting some services at Tauranga Hospital.

New cases of the virus are slowing up, but the hospital is still taking precautions to ensure the safety of patients and staff.

Ward 3 has reopened after cleaning was completed yesterday.

Bay of Plenty District Health Board Infectious Disease Physician, Dr Brian Dwyer, says that no further cases have developed in Ward 5 and it will reopen when cleaning has been completed.

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2/10/2006

Half-term holidays have started early for some children in Birmingham and the Black Country as a sickness bug continues to close schools.

More than 30 sites in Birmingham and Sandwell have been closed at some point but these numbers have fallen. Eight schools were closed on Friday.

Schools have remained closed for up to three days in a bid to stop Norovirus and winter sickness spreading.

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2/7/2006

(CBS) CHICAGO City health inspectors have ordered a top-to-bottom cleaning of the kitchens at the posh Drake Hotel along Michigan Avenue after guests reportedly became ill after dining there over the weekend.

About 80 guests and others who dined at the hotel located at 140 E. Walton reportedly became ill with symptoms including diarrhea and vomiting. Several people sought treatment at area emergency rooms, but no one required hospitalization, city health officials said.

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006
BY TRACY DAVIS
News Staff Reporters

A common winter intestinal virus is being blamed for sickening dozens of employees and customers of an Ann Arbor restaurant and for shutting down a middle school in Livingston County for one day last week, health officials say.

Washtenaw County Environmental Health officials say they are investigating a possible outbreak of Norwalk-like viruses that may have sickened up to 32 people at the restaurant.

Livingston officials say the same type of virus shut down Maltby Middle School near Brighton last Friday after dozens of students stayed home sick.

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Reported illness hits 437; report to be released today
By Kevin Grasha
Lansing State Journal

The illness that afflicted more than 400 customers and several workers Carrabba's Italian Grill in Delta Township could have been spread by a sick employee or sick employees.

But Barry-Eaton District Health Department officials say they are still trying to pinpoint the cause.

"We are still investigating to get a clearer picture," said Eric Pessell, the department's director of environmental health.

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February 7, 2006
A Lansing State Journal editorial

The virus that sickened hundreds of people who recently dined in a Lansing-area restaurant was an instructive reminder on several levels:

ï As a society, we rely increasingly on meals prepared away from our homes. That implies a great deal of trust in restaurants. Sometimes, the trust is broken.

ï Owners and managers of area restaurants may look at what happened at Carrabba's Italian Grill and say: "There but for the grace of God go I." These restaurants should review all of their hygienic and food-preparation practices. w In Michigan, county health departments serve as both the first and last lines of defense against health risks in restaurants. They need to be ever-vigilant. And to state and county leaders who may be tempted to balance tight budgets by curtailing health inspections - think again.

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By Ben Hoyle
2/6/2006

PLANS WERE announced yesterday for the worldís largest passenger ship, in defiance of an epidemic of disasters that has befallen cruise liners in recent years.

At 222,000 gross register tons, the Royal Caribbean International vessel will be nearly half as big again as the Queen Mary 2, which holds the title.

Measuring 360 metres long (1,181ft) and standing 65m, clear of the water, Project Genesis would also dwarf the Titanic.

Aker Yards, of Finland, which has won the Ä900 million (£616 million) building contract, said that the anticipated 5,400 passengers will be entertained by an unrivalled selection of activities ó still to be confirmed ó when she takes to the sea late in 2009.

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Jessica Aspiras
2/6/2006

Restaurants like the Stillwater Grill in Okemos follow strict standards to make sure they keep their customers safe. Workers are required to wear gloves when they handle food, and they frequently sanitize their equipment. General Manager Joann Decker says the recent outbreak of the Noro-Virus at the Carrabbas in Delta Township is a reminder to her and her employees. They must remember to take the necessary precautions when it comes to food safety. "We've been talking about it saying look how important it is. Look what can happen just one time failing to wash your hands properly."

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Carrabba's open as number of cases increases
Lansing State Journal

A total of 344 people have reported becoming ill after eating at Carrabba's Italian Grill on Jan. 28 and Jan. 29, a Barry-Eaton District Health Department official said Sunday.

The reported cases, which have steadily grown over the past week, were apparently caused by a norovirus that can lead to severe vomiting and diarrhea.

"It all continues to be contained within those first patrons that were at the restaurant on Saturday and Sunday," said Penny Pierce, a deputy health officer.

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2/5/2006
The Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) ó Local health officials have identified 195 people who became ill after eating at an Italian restaurant, and the number of reported cases was expected to increase.

Patrons became ill the last weekend in January after eating at Carrabba's Italian Grill on West Saginaw Highway.

"This is a large outbreak, in part because they served a lot of people that weekend," said Dr. Robert Schirmer, medical director of the Barry-Eaton District Health Department.

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Feb 2, 2006

Hundreds of pupils in Wolverhampton and South Staffordshire have fallen victim to winter sicknesses, which has forced many schools in the region to close.

Dozens of schools across the West Midlands have been affected by Norovirus, also known as "winter vomiting virus," and other ailments including severe colds and flu-type bugs.

All Saints Primary School in Trysull, which has 94 pupils, has stayed open despite 37 children being off sick due to the virus.

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2/2006

Nine schools in Birmingham and the Black Country remain closed following an outbreak of the Norovirus or winter sickness disease and flu virus.

Hundreds of children at schools in Shropshire and Staffordshire have also been affected by the illness.

Experts have said the number of children affected was broadly in line with a winter virus.

Symptoms suffered by those affected included vomiting, high fevers, diarrhoea and lethargy.

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