Abstract
In March 1998, an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis occurred among students at a Texas university. Overall, 125 ill students sought medical care. Case-control studies revealed that illness was significantly associated with eating foods from the university's main cafeteria dell bar on 9 and 10 March. Stool specimens from 9 (50%) of 18 ill students and samples of deli ham showed evidence of Norwalk-like viruses (NLVs) by reverse-transcriptase (RT) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. A food handler who prepared sandwiches for lunch on 9 March reported that her infant had been sick with watery diarrhea since just before the outbreak. A stool sample from the infant was positive for NLV by RT-PCR, and the sequence of the amplified product was identical to that of amplified product from dell ham and students' stool specimens. This is the first time RT-PCR and sequence analysis have successfully confirmed vital contamination of a food item likely to have been contaminated by a food handler.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1467-1470 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Journal of Infectious Diseases |
Volume | 181 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2000 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Immunology and Allergy
- Infectious Diseases