At Least 73 People Fall Ill After Roxboro Luncheon

By Brianne Dopart, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.

Dec. 7–ROXBORO — Person County Health Department officials are teaming with the Orange County Health Department, the state’s Division of Public Health and the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources to investigate a case of food contamination one official calls the worse she’s seen in her decade-long career.

Seventy-three people reported getting sick last weekend after eating at a luncheon Nov. 30 held in conjunction with the opening of Force Protection Inc.’s new plant off Halifax Road in Person County, according to Person County Health Department Director Janet Clayton.

Officials became aware of the outbreak Monday and since then, county health workers have attempted to reach each of the approximately 350 people on the guest list to determine just how many people got sick, Clayton said.

Most of those affected have complained of abdominal cramping, diarrhea and chills, said Clayton. A few others reported nausea and a low-grade fever, she added.

The Catering Company of Chapel Hill, a 27-year-old business that catered the event, has been very cooperative with health officials, Clayton said.

“This appears to be an isolated incident,” she said, adding that Orange County officials were working with The Catering Company to make sure food at other events it had catered had not been contaminated.

The source of the contamination is unknown, but Clayton said stool samples and food samples are being analyzed at the state’s Public Health Lab in Raleigh.

Analysis of the stool samples is expected to be completed by Monday, while the food analysis could take more time, Clayton said.

Clayton said no politicians at the event — U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., and Richard Burr, R-N.C., or U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C. — got sick.

A Dole spokesman said the senator did not eat at the event.

—–

To see more of The Herald-Sun, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.herald-sun.com.

Copyright (c) 2007, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NASDAQ-SMALL:FRPT,