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Experts: Scope
of Outbreak Hinders Probe
Tue Aug 24,10:17 AM ET
By JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press Writer
TOLEDO,
Ohio -
The wide scope of an outbreak that sickened hundreds of travelers to a Lake
Erie resort island will make it difficult to find a source for the illness,
infectious disease experts said. Some say they suffered nausea and diarrhea
after traveling to South Bass Island in recent weeks, while some say they
fell ill in early June.
Others never set foot on the quaint tourist getaway, only stopping
nearby.
"It's not like you have 600 people who went to the same wedding,
and they all had the coleslaw," said Brian Harrington, a professor of public
health at the Medical College of Ohio.
The number of gastrointestinal illnesses rose again on Monday, with
750 people now saying they fell ill after visiting the island and the
surrounding area. The island is about halfway between
Toledo and
Cleveland.
The total includes tourists from
Ontario,
Canada, and 11 states as far away as
California
and Texas, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
A handful of people have tested positive for two kinds of bacterial
infections, campylobacter and salmonella, and one kind of viral infection,
norovirus.
David Taylor, an infection control practitioner at
Ohio State
University Medical Center, said it was unusual that all three infections
would come from the same outbreak.
All three organisms could have been spread by drinking water,
restaurant workers or someone who didn't wash their hands after using a
restroom. Nothing has been ruled out.
It's possible that the problem may go away before investigators can
pinpoint the source,
Taylor
said.
"Sometimes we never do find a source for it," he said. "The fact
that it's a resort where people come and go makes it more difficult."
All the cases may not be linked to
South Bass
Island, Harrington said.
"They may be coincidental," he said. "It's possible some of those
people picked up something else, somewhere else. People tend to eat out
more, eat more casually in the summer. It's picnic season and tourist
season."
Most people said they became sick within two or three days of
visiting the summer getaway island where the main town, Put-In-Bay, draws
about 15,000 people by boat on weekends to its inns, wineries, beaches and
bars.
Visitors' symptoms included nausea, chills, fever, abdominal
cramps, diarrhea and vomiting, and generally lasted about 24 hours.
The state Health Department doesn't have many tests pending because
most people have since recovered, said agency spokesman Kristopher Weiss.
Investigators were looking for common links besides the illness and
travel to the island, he said.
"It's very difficult to say where this could go," Weiss said.
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