You now have a good reason to suspect that the food you have ordered for lunch in a nearby restaurant is to blame for your sudden bouts with diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain.
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that individuals who have contracted norovirus infection have likely got them through contaminated food from restaurants. In its report released on Tuesday, the CDC revealed that infected food workers are responsible for about 70 percent of all norovirus outbreaks that occurred between 2009 and 2012.
Norovirus is the number one cause of food-borne illnesses in the United States causing sickness in up to 21 million individuals per year. The virus, which causes either the stomach or the intestines to get inflamed, is also accountable for up to 71,000 hospitalizations and over 500,000 deaths per year.
CDC's findings, which were published in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) on Tuesday, were based on data from the National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS) on norovirus outbreaks from 2009 to 2012. An analysis of data of acute gastroenteritis outbreak reports reveals that there were 1,008 norovirus outbreaks during the period.
Food contamination is to blame for 520 of the outbreaks and an infected food worker has something to do with 70 percent of these outbreaks. In more than half of these food-borne outbreaks, food workers were reported to have touched raw and already-cooked foods with their bare hands.
"Food service workers who have norovirus can contaminate food and make many people sick," the CDC said. "In norovirus outbreaks for which investigators reported the source of contamination, 70% are caused by infected food workers."
To prevent norovirus infection, the CDC urged the food service industry to train their food workers with safe and proper food handling practices such as the proper washing of hands and refraining from touching ready to eat foods e.g. fruits and vegetables with their bare hands. The CDC also recommends that restaurants require workers who are sick to stay at home until they get well to prevent them from infecting others and from contaminating food that people eat.
"Norovirus outbreaks from contaminated food in restaurants are far too common." CDC Director Tom Frieden said. "All who prepare food, especially the food service industry, can do more to create a work environment that promotes food safety and ensures that workers adhere to food safety laws and regulations that are already in place."
