Norovirus

I was sick as a dog a couple of weekends ago. I've got a stomach of cast-iron generally, which makes bouts of gastroenteritis always unexpected and particularly unpleasant. This particular bout struck at 2am; I consider myself lucky that I was able to get to the bathroom before I started puking. I was up again at 4am -- more puking -- and sent my out-sick e-mail then.

This is all far more than you ever needed to know about my recent illness; suffice it to say I didn't eat anything for a couple of days, then subsisted on soup and fruit for a couple more. I was feeling mostly well again the following week when I chanced upon an article in the campus newspaper. Turns out, there were other sick people that weekend, as well, many of whom had eaten at Chipotle the week before. Chipotle -- where I'd eaten a vegetarian burrito for lunch on Wednesday.

Any doubt that remained was squelched by another article, printed yesterday. Twenty-six customers who ate at Chipotle on Wednesday reported getting sick. I didn't report it, so I'd make number 27, and I'm sure there are others, as well.

Each of the 26 cases became ill two days after eating at Chipotle and had similar symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea, said Valadez. All patients tested positive for the norovirus, a group of viruses that causes gastroenteritis, which leads to irritation and inflammation of the digestive tract.

Two days, of course, is enough time to make you forget what you might've eaten that made you ill. What I ate the night I got sick was a frozen mushroom pizza. Needless to say, I haven't been hungry for pizza or mushrooms since that weekend -- puking mushrooms out my nose tends to curb my appetite a bit. Ironically, since so much time had passed between eating at Chipotle and getting sick, I didn't really have any bad mental associations with the restaurant at all. ...Until I read this:

"It's called fecal-oral spread," said Ginger Bloomer, a UHS physician who treated the seven initial students. "There are microscopic amounts of the virus on the employee's hands after they have used the bathroom, it gets on the food, and now you eat it."

Yuck.