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Dining Hall Closed After MSU Students Get Sick

By PritzkerLaw

One of the first indicators last year to the development of a regional outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 was a rash of student illnesses at Michigan State University. Eventually, health investigators traced those cases and others to E. coli contamination of lettuce packaged by a Detroit supplier.

Now the university is working with the Ingham County Health Department to figure out what caused more than 20 MSU students to be hospitalized overnight this week with diarrhea, vomitting and stomach cramps. The Detroit Free Press reported today that the school closed one of its cafeterias -- a recently renovated eatery in centrally located Shaw Hall -- and has pulled fresh produce from all of its other cafeterias.

Officials said it's too early to even tell if the illnesses were even foodborne, but tests are being conducted and results could be back as early as tonight.

"This is not something that happens every year at MSU,'' Robin Roach, a nurse epidemiologist and infection control coordinator for Sparrow Hospital told the Free Press.

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on April 01, 2009 (boomark / email).