Staph aureus food poisoning in a restaurant

Staphylococcus toxin sickened more than 137 people.
A staph bacteria may have sickened more than 137 people who ate an Easter buffet at Claudia Sanders Dinner House in Shelbyville, Ky., state health officials said today.Preliminary results from the Kentucky State Lab suggested that staphylococcus aureus might be the culprit in the food poisoning, although it’s not definitive since it was found in some stool samples and not others.“We anticipate more confirmed results next week,” said Tony Millet, a spokesman for the state’s North Central District Health Department.Health department officials said today they would allow the famed restaurant, once owned by Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Col. Harland Sanders and his wife, to reopen tomorrow. It has been closed since Tuesday.The restaurant employs about 90 full-time workers ages 16-78. Riley said she instructed staff this week to clean everything, including the ceiling and the walls.“We’ve sanitized and Cloroxed every surface in the building,” she said. “And anything that was opened, even if it wasn’t used that day, has been thrown away.”Before receiving word of the preliminary test results yesterday, Riley said the staff simply “tried to prepare for the worst,” taking on the task of sanitizing “as if it was our fault.”Staphylococci can exist in air, dust, sewage, water, milk and food, or on food equipment, environmental surfaces, humans and animals.It exists on the skin, nasal passages and body hair of many healthy people. The state lab is still testing samples from food and patrons.According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, staph bacteria’s incubation period is about 30 minutes to six hours, with roughly two days of symptoms. That is consistent with the illnesses reported, officials said. Riley said today she believes the outbreak occurred shortly after a “mass of people” came into the restaurant on Easter Sunday following an accident that closed part of Interstate 64. The restaurant is at 3202 U.S. 60. About 2,500 people are thought to have eaten at the restaurant on Easter. Because the restaurant doesn’t offer a buffet every day, Riley said the buffet table there is not like those found at restaurants that do, lacking the typical “sneeze guard” over the table itself. Instead, each pan of food has a shield that can be raised or lowered.The restaurant has made no plans to cancel its buffet, which is offered one day per week and on holidays like Easter and Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day is the restaurant’s busiest day of the year.When talking to health officials about what the restaurant could do to prevent a future outbreak, Riley said she found a couple of changes that could be made, such as changing food pans out more often and dropping the shields to cover three-quarters of the pan. However, she said that would significantly slow patrons from getting through the buffet line, especially at peak times.“We’re looking at that as part of the investigation,” said state epidemiologist Kraig Humbaugh.According to the CDC, death from staphylococcal food poisoning is rare, although instances have occurred among the elderly, infants and severely debilitated persons.Health officials are still asking patrons who ate at the restaurant that day to contact them, even if they didn’t get sick.Source: Courier Journal.com
Aporte: Guillermo Figueroa