A little bit of Norovirus with your entr�e
Yikes - from the
Bellingham Herald:
Bellingham Applebee's stays closed amid norovirus concern
Applebee's restaurant on East Sunset Drive was still closed Wednesday, Feb. 12, as more stringent measures were put in place to combat a suspected norovirus outbreak.
Norovirus is highly contagious and causes nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
It's not known when the Whatcom County Health Department will allow the Bellingham restaurant to reopen.
Meanwhile, the health department has received 56 complaints from people who said they were sickened after eating at Applebee's.
"That doesn't mean what they report fits the expected progression of norovirus," said Tom Kunesh, supervisor for the health department's Food and Living Environment Program.
That's because norovirus has an incubation period of 30 to 40 hours, Kunesh said.
A total of 15 Applebee's employees have reported becoming ill - most of them on Thursday, Feb. 6, and Friday, Feb. 7.
The health department first closed the restaurant Friday morning, after inspectors heard about gastrointestinal illness among workers.
County officials allowed the restaurant to reopen around noon Sunday after a 48-hour closure to help stop the spread of the virus. Other measures included extensive cleaning and sterilization of the restaurant, throwing away food, requiring ill workers to stay home for at least 48 hours, and screening employees before they could come back to work.
But they closed it again Tuesday, Feb. 11, when another two employees became ill.
The gift that keeps on giving. You do not die from it, you just wish you did. Highly contagious, long incubation period (all the while you are spreading the disease), long lived on surfaces -- door knobs, counters, dishware, etc.
This is not a slam on Applebee's -- their food is OK. Someone came in with the bug and it just spread. I hope that it was an employee and not a customer who would frequent other restaurants in the area.
For my grocery store and my new business, I use sanitizing wipes at least once per shift.
And, the Whatcom County Health Department is very lucky to have Tom Kunesh. I have worked with him at the store, at the bakery and at various Chamber of Commerce functions. The guy knows his stuff...
Posted by DaveH at February 12, 2014 7:06 PM