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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently expanded its website to include a norovirus toolkit advising the ways in which one might contract the killer virus.
Among the public health agency's prescribed practices to stop the spread of the virus: "Practice proper hand hygiene Take care in the kitchen Do not prepare food while infected Clean and disinfect contaminated surfaces after throwing up or having diarrhea Wash laundry thoroughly."
But nowhere in that exhaustive battery of norovirus dodges was a recommendation to avoid reusable grocery bags. Curious, considering that reusable-but-not-recyclable alternative to single-use plastic bags were recently linked to an unsavory outbreak of norovirus that struck a hapless middle school-aged girls' soccer team.
The proliferation of the virus, which is estimated to cause 21 million of acute cases of gastroenteritis and the deaths of some 200,000 children annually, via the bags is in part the result of an unfortunate merger of form and function.Successive studies have shown reusable bags to host bacteria like E. coli, salmonella and fecal coliform in addition to norovirus. One study even found the bacteria build-up on reusable bags was 300 percent higher than what is considered a safe level by public health officials.
Researchers at the University of Arizona sampled 84 reusable bags from shoppers in Los Angeles, the most recent major municipality to ban plastic bags, and two additional bag-outlawed cities. The findings were stunning: just over half were contaminated with some form of harmful bacteria while at least twelve percent contained traces of fecal matter. When the contaminated bags were housed in car trunks for two hours, scientists found the number of bacteria was boosted ten-fold.
One recent study found only three out of every twenty Americans wash their reusable grocery bags with any regularity.
From Explosive CDC Omission: Norovirus Spread Through Reusable Grocery Bags
Wow. Now I have seen some dipshit reporting before, but the sentence in red takes the case. The jump from reuse of grocery bags to the use of those bags causing the death of 200,000 children is one of the worst cases of jounalistic idiocy I have seen in a long time. But typical of that source.
Of course, a quick spray of Lysol is out of the question, correct? Once again, idiocy from idiots.
Officials from the Boston Public Health Department confirmed this afternoon that the students were sickened by norovirus. “Clinically speaking, these cases have symptoms that are not consistent with E.coli," Dr. Anita Barry, director of Boston Public Health Commission's Infectious Disease Bureau, said. "They are more typical of norovirus.” The source of the outbreak is still being investigated. A spokesman for the university said authorities focused on the Cleveland Circle Chipotle location. The restaurant is currently closed for the investigation. The 80 students were tested for both E.coli and norovirus, according to a university spokesperson. There have been no hospitalizations at this time, health officials said.
Chipotle, which has already been dealing with the fallout of a multi-state E.coli outbreak, said that no confirmed cases of E.coli in Boston have been linked to the company. "We agree with health officials that it is likely a norovirus, which seems very consistent with the pattern here," Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold told ABC News in a statement today. "It is important to note that noroviruses are very common, in part because they are so easily transmitted (they can spread through person-to-person contact, on surface areas, or through food or drink). According to the CDC, there are approximately 20 million cases a year, making them the leading cause of gastroenteritis in the U.S."
Chipotle has been trying to reassure customers after at least 52 people in nine states fell ill in an E.coli outbreak linked to the Mexican chain restaurant. Forty-seven of the 52 people affected reported eating at Chipotle, according to interviews by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those cases all occurred between Oct. 13 and Nov. 7, according to the company. In addition to temporarily closing 43 restaurants in Washington state and Oregon, Chipotle announced a host of new safety measures including increased testing and training in the wake of the outbreak.
MORE
http://cdn.breitbart.com/mediaserver/Breitbart/Big-Government/2012/10/27/reusable-bags.png
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently expanded its website to include a norovirus toolkit advising the ways in which one might contract the killer virus.
Among the public health agency's prescribed practices to stop the spread of the virus: "Practice proper hand hygiene Take care in the kitchen Do not prepare food while infected Clean and disinfect contaminated surfaces after throwing up or having diarrhea Wash laundry thoroughly."
But nowhere in that exhaustive battery of norovirus dodges was a recommendation to avoid reusable grocery bags. Curious, considering that reusable-but-not-recyclable alternative to single-use plastic bags were recently linked to an unsavory outbreak of norovirus that struck a hapless middle school-aged girls' soccer team.
The proliferation of the virus, which is estimated to cause 21 million of acute cases of gastroenteritis and the deaths of some 200,000 children annually, via the bags is in part the result of an unfortunate merger of form and function.
Successive studies have shown reusable bags to host bacteria like E. coli, salmonella and fecal coliform in addition to norovirus. One study even found the bacteria build-up on reusable bags was 300 percent higher than what is considered a safe level by public health officials.
Researchers at the University of Arizona sampled 84 reusable bags from shoppers in Los Angeles, the most recent major municipality to ban plastic bags, and two additional bag-outlawed cities. The findings were stunning: just over half were contaminated with some form of harmful bacteria while at least twelve percent contained traces of fecal matter. When the contaminated bags were housed in car trunks for two hours, scientists found the number of bacteria was boosted ten-fold.
One recent study found only three out of every twenty Americans wash their reusable grocery bags with any regularity.
From Explosive CDC Omission: Norovirus Spread Through Reusable Grocery Bags
Norovirus causes severe diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. It is responsible for about 50 percent of all gastrointestinal illnesses around that world, not only in developed countries but emerging nations as well. And it kills approximately 219,000 people a year. Bruce Lee is a professor of international health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. He and his colleagues estimated the cost of norovirus in 233 countries, regions and territories around the world. The figure they came up with: upwards of $60 billion dollars a year in lost productivity, due to personal illness or caring for a sick child. “We were interested in quantifying or better characterizing the impact of norovirus because it’s something that you’ve heard of, but if you think about it, you're not really sure what the impact, how often does it occur, how widespread is it.”
The actual number of people who get sick with norovirus, said Lee, may be an underestimate because a substantial number of cases go unreported. “So people may suffer with the symptoms and they think, 'well I’ve got a stomach bug', quote end quote, and 'I’ve got some food poisoning' and they never really report it or get diagnosed,” he said. Researchers report their estimates in the journal PLoS One. Their calculations are thought to be the first regarding the global impact of norovirus.
People enter the Russell Investments Center building Monday, Dec. 7, 2015, in Seattle. Over 100 people have gotten sick in a norovirus outbreak at the office building, health officials reported Monday.
Highly contagious, but preventable
Lee said the disease is a very aggressive intestinal illness, causing the worst diarrhea most people have ever had. While there is no vaccine for norovirus, Lee hopes greater awareness will lead to control measures. These include washing hands and disinfecting food preparation areas. He said people who fall ill should also be encouraged to stay home. “Many times, people who work in restaurants or the food preparation industry feel obligated to show up to work even though they are sick, because many folks are on wages and they can’t afford to miss a day, even a day.. so they’ll come in sick and then they’ll end up contaminating food and spread it to many other people,” Lee said. Lee said there are experimental vaccines under development - although they are not funded to the same degree as drug research for other illnesses – but he hopes one will emerge that will help contain the spread of norovirus.
Highly Contagious Virus Sickens Nearly Million at High Cost
