Chipotle and Norovirus!?

What?!

Are you as surprised as I was? According to the website Fortune, a Chipotle in California has experienced a Norovirus outbreak. Yes...Chipotle, our favorite Mexican fast-food "restaurant". The video on the website (which, unfortunately I cannot upload on here?) is a one-minute interview with people who just left a chipotle in California. The interviewer is asking each chipotle costumer whether they will still enjoy their food knowing about this outbreak. Surprisingly, a lot of people said yes! ...Or is that not surprising? Well, if you ever had the stomach flu, you would probably not enjoy your food, for you know the dreaded feeling of getting up to vomit every few hours. But, it seemed as though a lot of the people being interviewed were in denial of them ever contracting the Norovirus! Tsk tsk... Well, hopefully you guys agree with me on this one that it could in fact happen to anyone. Actually, chances are you're probably going to get it at one point, have already gotten it, or know someone close to you who has. Be careful!

The link is below for those of you who wish to watch the video!

Link: Chipotle and Norovirus Article + Interview

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References

http://fortune.com/2016/01/21/chipotle-accused-norovirus-cover-up/

What is Norovirus?

Norovirus (NoV) or acute gastroenteritis, commonly known as the stomach bug, is a highly contagious virus that causes severe gastrointestinal symptoms (discussed below). The virus was previously called Norwalk virus due to its initial outbreak in Norwalk, Ohio in 1968 amongst a group of school children. The virus is a calicivirus because it belongs to the family Caliciviridae. As evident in the picture above, the virus is small (26-35nm) spherical in shape. The virus does not have a viral envelope and contains single-stranded RNA molecules. Possible human genoogroups include GI, GII, GIV. GI and GII are responsible for the majority of illnesses in humans.
The virus is the leading cause for gastroenteritis all around the world in all age groups. The virus accounts for over half of all reported cases of gastroenteritis each year. According to the CDC, in the United States, it is the most common cause of food borne disease outbreaks. It causes 19 to 21 million illnesses each year. Of those 56,000 to 71,000 individuals are hospitalized, and roughly 800 individuals die from the virus.
The symptoms of this virus include but are not limited too, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, stomach cramps/pain, fever, headaches and or general body ache. Secondary symptoms include dehydration due to excessive vomiting and diarrhea. Onset of symptoms generally begins 12 to 48 hours after exposure and usually begin seeing relief in symptoms about 1 to 3 days after onset.  
Once contracted, infected individuals will be diagnosed predominantly through their obvious signs and symptoms mentioned above. However, in addition to this, a fecal/stool sample may be taken to then be processed in a laboratory for further confirmation. Additionally, reverse transcriptase PCR based methods could be utilized for detection, though this is not common and not extensively done.


Here is a cute video!

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References

http://www.cdc.gov/hicpac/norovirus/008_norovirus-background.html

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/19/8/13-0465_article

http://www.lapublichealth.org/acd/docs/NorovirusFactSheet_06.pdf

http://www.nhsggc.org.uk/media/233225/norovirus.pdf

Images

http://boingboing.net/2014/06/03/we-call-norovirus-the-cruise.html