Merely a day after an outbreak of E.coli at Taco Bell restaurants was declared over, more than 300 people have reported becoming ill after eating at an Olive Garden restaurant in Indianapolis, Indiana last weekend, health officials said Friday.
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Merely a day after an outbreak of E.coli at Taco Bell restaurants was declared over, more than 300 people have reported becoming ill after eating at an Olive Garden restaurant in Indianapolis, Indiana last weekend, health officials said Friday.
The rise in number of people getting ill due to having their meals at the eatery rekindled fears of E. coli outbreak that sickened dozens of people who ate at Taco Bell restaurants in the Northeast recently, among people.
Health officials have not found any link between the fresh widespread customer illnesses and the high-profile outbreak of E.coli. Spinach and later scallions were pinpointed for the fatal E.coli outbreak that killed three people and sickened many others.
Late on Thursday (December, 14) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gave a clean chit to more than 90 Taco Bell restaurants which were blamed to be the source of E.coli outbreak in which 120 people were reported ill.
Yesterday’s news of Indiana illness made the Olive Garden at least the third U.S. restaurant chain this month, after Taco Bell and Taco John's, to be linked to widespread customer illness.
Customers who ate at the Olive Garden restaurant in northeast Indianapolis between December 9 to 13 have complained of nausea, vomiting, fever and diarrhea, and at least three of them have been hospitalized.
"We're trying to isolate what the cause of the illness might be," said Marion County Health Department spokesman John Althardt. The problem seems to be isolated to an Olive Garden on Indianapolis' north side, he said.
The chain of Italian restaurants, which is owned by Orlando, Florida-based Darden Restaurants Inc., said the company is working with health officials to identify the cause of the illness.
"The primary focus of the health department is on some employees that have been exhibiting flu-like symptoms," said Olive Garden spokesman Steve Coe.
The company will temporarily close the restaurant to give the health department a better opportunity to investigate the reported sickness that may be linked to employees that recently had flu-like symptoms, Olive Garden stated in its press release.
Health officials collected the stool samples of the sick persons as well as the leftovers they took home from the restaurant to pinpoint the source of the illness. Tests will be conducted later today or Monday, Althardt said.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Julie Zawisza, denied receiving any information on the illnesses linked to Olive Garden.
The American restaurant chain’s parent company, Darden’s shares closed 82 cents, or about 2.0 percent, down at $40.44 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Olive garden and mass illness
Before getting into med school I had worked in san diego at a very popular locally-owned chain restaurant (now defunct) called Pir*tes. The bulk of the food was prepared in a central place and delivered to each restaurant. The employees at the main food operations were practically all immigrants - largely undocumented - yet had ssn etc. No one ever questioned the ID or documents as that would constituted harassment or discrimination. I was the person the managers would call on to help translate papers for many workers. Anyway we had such a outbreak also. It was from workers who were carriers: had not washed hands:who were mixing by hand. That was quite a large amount of food - touched by hands that even if washed still had to open the bathroom door. Even if wearing gloves what did it matter because of cross-contamination? Perhaps you may not get sick south of the border because you may be extra careful of what you eat etc - but the real border no longer exists. Its an open secret that the majority of our hard working undocumented workers have had hepatitis A and some have certain medical problems that have never been clinically diagnosed/cured. One of the dishwashers in san francisco had such pain - chef told him to go home - I set up an appointment for him to go to clinic - he had had infestation of worms - thats what made me get interested in medicine. I have worked in other restaurants in seattle and san francisco and tucson - its usually the same - no one cares about or implements health standards. I really do not care how many investigators there are checking restaurants etc - no one is chking the workers and giving them a clean bill of health. And I do not blame the workers I put the blame - all of it - on the employers and the people who scream about rights but do not involve themselves in the problems of sanitary conditions for field workers! sanitary training for employees of any nationality ! The leniency of supervisors and managers disgusts me more.