The number of students sickened by a mystery illness at Ursinus College in eastern Pennsylvania has risen to over 170.
College spokeswoman Esme Artz says 174 students have shown signs of a stomach infection. Overnight, two students went to the emergency room, and two others were taken to a hospital Thursday morning.
The school closed its cafeterias and snack bar after students began complaining of vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain Tuesday night.
Classes remain open, but weekend events have been canceled.
The school is working with Montgomery County health authorities to try to determine whether the ailment is foodborne or transmitted from person to person.
Ursinus has partnered with Wawa, Wegman’s, local pizza shops and a bakery to provide food while the cafeterias are closed.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
Eateries are a good way to infect large numbers of people. When an employee shows up sick they should not be allowed to work or remain in the area where food or clean dishware is handled. I never got any food borne illnesses in college, but I remember that several people were sickened after eating food that had been prepared using spoiled salad dressing.
Hate to burst your bubble, but you’d be hard-pressed to find an industry with a greater pressure to work “come hell or high water” that kitchens.
And you comment about spoiled salad dressing points out another thing about food service: foods can be good after their expiration dates, and bad before them. Most food-borne illness is either the result of chronic, serious (not washing something in months, vs. skipping a wash every now and then) violation or an upstream contamination in the supply chain that’s too deep for retail level sanitation to counteract.
And there isn’t even any proof yet that it’s something in the campus food service.
the new virus is a bioweaon , one lab there in PA… I think if was five in US..I wonder about Chiplie. can’t spell 🙂 oh well
@ mama bear :Where did you see this information and can you provide the link to substantiate your statements? Thanks. My family are all in PA and many are in college there.