Chapter 1, Problem 2MCFU

Dr. Andrews has a lot of questions tot Patty. When did she start feeling poorly? When did the diarrhea start? How long after the diarrhea began did she start vomiting? Patty feels terrible and is somewhat annoyed with the doctor—she already told the nurse most of this information. so why does he need to ask again? Dr. Andrews tells Patty that he suspects she may have food poisoning, and for public health reasons its necessary to try to track down the source. Dr. Andrews gets a complete list of the foods that Patty consumed over the last 48 hours, including where they were consumed. The doctor collects a stool (feces) sample from Patty and sends it to the lab for analysis. The results come back positive for norovirus.

Dr. Andrews asks Patty whether anyone else at her weekend events has gotten sick or whether anyone at the parties had been sick in the no-too-distant past. Patty replies that some of the other people at the barbecue who had eaten meat were feeling poorly; she thinks that since she ate only fruit salad at the barbecue, she couldn’t have the same thing they had. She also knew that the family that hosted the barbecue had a child home sick from day care the week before. Dr. Andrews tells Patty that it’s likely that the fruit salad became contaminated with noroviruses and that this is where Patty got the infection. Since norovirus is viral, typical antibacterial drugs such as penicillin cannot be used as treatment. Dr. Andrews tells Patty to rest as much as she can and drink a lot of water to prevent dehydration; she should start feeling better in a day or two.

Based on what you know about Patty’s case, can you form a hypothesis about how the fruit salad became contaminated?