Secrets of the City

In other tainted food news: Officials are investigating a norovirus breakout in Redwood Falls.

In other E. coli news, a Longville church is being sued by the meat packing plant over tainted meat.

And, in even more bacterial news, Fred Phelps’ church has to pay $11 million over their protest at a Marine’s funeral.

Not until this. Good gawd. Totino’s pizza is the lord come froth from the oven.

Are people eating uncooked pizza?

eColi will we completed killed if heated to 160 degrees.
From my vast knowledge of pizza instructions I have never seen

“preheat oven to 150 degrees”

That shit stain Phelps must be the most unhappy person on earth.

Wow, considering each Totino’s pizza only costs like $1.35, I shouldn’t be too surprised. I just wish I hadn’t eaten that deliciously cheap pepperoni pizza the other night…

You do have to love the pizza ads to the right.

OMG, my fave guilty pleasure, the Totino’s Party Pizza!

NNNNNNOoooooooOOOoooOooOooooooooo!

So funny, Simpleton. “Healthy & Delicious Pizza”! Awesome.

mmmm… uncooked pizza.

General Mills shares were down $1.08, or about two pizzas per share.

Oh man. I have had that norovirus. I have nothing but sympathy for those poor people.

2 pizzas per share! Ha!

I had the norovirus a few years ago, too (resisting the urge to link to my stereotypically graphic account). I have never been so violently ill in my entire life. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

Actually, most frozen pizzas I know required 400+ degrees.

Even tho you may have your oven heated to 400F+ degrees, it is the temperature of the food you are cooking that needs to be raised to 160F+ to kill e coli.

Most foods reach a temp of 150-180F when fully cooked. If you are eating pizza right out of the oven and the roof of your mouth isn’t burnt, chances are it isn’t up to temp.

… and Norovirus and E Coli are vastly different foodborne illnesses.

Norovirus cases number 23 million per year in the US. And while it sucks (had it myself)…. E Coli is way more infrequent… and serious.

They are quite different. Thanks for clarifying that. E. coli is incredibly serious.

I never had neither. Guess I haven’t lived.

Well, I have had some really devastating food poisoning and I don’t know WHAT it was. Serves me right for going to a soup kitchen run by hippies.

Courtney was quite sick a few weeks ago after eating at a restaurant. Throwing up every half hour. Just in agony.

Funny thing is, we had eaten the same thing. I presume I was protected from the sickness because I had an incredibly strong cocktail with my meal. So I’ve learned an important lesson: Always drink heavily when eating out.

Kurtis: don’t say you haven’t had either E.Coli or norvo if you got sick from the hippie soup. You could very well have had one of them during that. Unless you went to the hospital and got your stool cultured, don’t assume you didn’t.

Max, you HAVE to tell us what restaurant it was. Did you call the MDH Foodborne Illness Hotline and report it?

ANY OF YOU, if you get sick after eating at any establishment, have an obligation to the rest of us to REPORT IT! It only takes 2 reports about a place in a short period of time to launch an investigation.

1-877-FOOD-ILL.

Since I cannot absolutely confirm that Courtney’s sickness was the result of the food she ate, I won’t name the restaurant. But if anything like this happens again, we will call the number you suggest.

Funny thing is, we had eaten the same thing.

I’ve had that happen before. I’ve heard that Salmonella is everywhere and it’s just a matter of sometimes getting unlucky and have a resistance that is down.

Though, just to be safe, I’ll drink heavily tonight.

*sigh*

You don’t need to “absolutely confirm” that her sickness was from a restaurant. The only way you can do that is if you’re a health care practitioner who can perform a C&S, analyze it and compare it to samples taken from items and workers in said restaurant. And correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re not qualified to do that.

Even if you’re reasonably suspicious it came from eating at a restaurant, REPORT IT! Please!

And yes, there is something to the idea of drinking strong alcohol. Often it actually does help to kill these bacteria in the alimentary canal.

“You don’t need to “absolutely confirm” that her sickness was from a restaurant.”

I’ll agree with that for making a call to the MDH, but it’s probably prudent from a legal standpoint to avoid publicly naming the restaurant until he can confirm that it was a food borne illness linked to the restaurant.

Oh, God, that norovirus is hideous, hideous stuff. I had it once and spent about twelve hours on the bathroom floor, since to travel any further was dangerous. I’ve never felt worse in my life.

Also, the norovirus is why I can no longer truly enjoy Nestle Buncha Crunch at the movie theater.

My condolences to those of you have have suffered through these illnesses. They really are quite nasty. I’d honestly rather suffer trauma or break bones than encounter one of these GI bugs myself.

I hope you all know to report it, and how to handle it when you get one yourself.

Replace fluids with electrolyte-fortified fluids like Pedialyte. If you can’t stomach the taste (many adults can’t) get the frozen Pedialyte pops or at least drink SmartWater. Use soft, dampened tissue gently on your bum if you have the runs (prevents hemorrhoids), and wash, wash, wash your hands. Rest. If you develop high fever or a rash call a nurse line or go to the E/R.

And above all, never, ever call it the stomach flu. THERE IS NO SUCH THING. Influenza rarely, if ever, had any affect on the adult GI system other than maybe some loss of appetite. The empty stomach as a result of that might cause some mild nausea, but vomiting and diarrhea aren’t usually indicative of influenza (”flu”). Those symptoms are 90% of the time a result of a foodborne bacteria.

So stop stop stop using the term “stomach flu!” It’s one of my pet peeves.

»» Submitted by Bxlovesepidemiology at 6:11 PM on November 1

Have you ever read either of these:

Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health

and
The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance

Both by Laurie Garrett

Might be right up your alley, and both very interesting.

Norovirus is FREQUENTLY transfered based on poor hand/personal hygiene.

While the restaurant and their employees may be responsible… it could be the actual guests who “bring it in” to a restaurant.

Definitely report… but don’t definitely assume that it was your restaurant who got you sick.

My norovirus was a special gift from my youngest niece at Christmastime. Everyone got it. There were some busy bathrooms at our house.

If someone put two Totino’s Party Pizzas before me and said “One of these is tainted,” I’d eat them both. They’re that good.

I’ve had food poisoning 3 times and I can tell you, it fucking sucks. The last time I got it, it was from the college cafeteria, I ended up in the ER, and I only reported it after hearing about others who were sickened. Max, you should definitely report it to the Health Department, or, at the very least, call the owner of the establishment.

Many times it takes up to 8 hours from the time you eat something tainted until you show symptoms so you can’t automatically assume it was the last thing you ate.

Also I’m guessing if you follow the cooking instructions on the box you will get your pizza well above 160 degrees. It’s not like those are deep dish extra thick rising crust pizzas those things are frisbees at best.

When I was infected with the norovirus we reported it to the MDH and confirmed with a sample. The restaurant that was pegged had 7 other victims. The restaurant sent us a hefty gift certificate as an apology. Thanks restaurant.

Max- There were 4 of us who dined together and shared dishes the night we got the norovirus and only 3 of us got sick…the 4th got sick from drinking too much that night! Alcohol saved her from some major pain.