Norovirus strikes 120 Boston College students who ate at Chipotle
At least 120 Boston College students and others from the surrounding community who ate at a local Chipotle have been sickened by norovirus, a fast-spreading bug that causes violent stomach illness.
The outbreak comes as the school's 14,000 students – more than half of whom live in dorms – prepare for final exams, which begin Saturday. The school issued a health alert Wednesday, saying it would redouble cleaning in common spaces and close salad bars and other self-serve cafeteria areas.
Norovirus, the leading cause of illness from contaminated food in the U.S., spreads rapidly and can be transmitted from person to person, and through food and contaminated surfaces. Last year, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship had to return to port after some 700 passengers and crew fell ill.
Chipotle has been beset by norovirus and E. coli outbreaks in the past year.
In August, a Chipotle restaurant in Simi Valley, Calif. was temporarily closed after 80 customers and 18 employees reported systems of Norovirus. The restaurant was reopened after restaurant operators did a deep cleaning of the store.
Also in August, Minnesota health and agriculture officials reported an outbreak of salmonella among customers of 17 different Chipotle restaurants located primarily in the Twin Cities metro area. Minnesota Department of Health officials cited tomatoes as the cause of outbreak, which affected 64 customers. Nine of those sickened customers were hospitalized.
In 2008, another Chipotle case near Kent State sickened 509 people from norovirus.
Health officials initially suspected E. coli for the Boston outbreak due to similar cases linked to Chipotle restaurants. On Saturday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported six E.coli cases in California, Illinois, Maryland, Ohio and Washington occurring between mid-October and early November. Five of the people reported eating at Chipotle.
Chipotle has said it is overhauling its food-safety procedures. Chipotle said in a Dec. 5 post on its website that it began its "enhanced food safety program" immediately following reports in October that linked 11 Chipotle restaurants in Washington and Oregon to E. coli outbreaks in those states.
Michael Osterholm, a professor at the University of Minnesota and a norovirus expert, said other Boston College students could become infected.
"Possibly in the hundreds," he said. "Close proximity does increase likelihood of transmission, so clearly dorm rooms and dormitories could lead to increased transmission."
Nearly all of the students who became ill told health officials they had eaten at a local Chipotle restaurant during the past weekend, Boston College spokesman John Dunn told USA TODAY College. Among those infected were eight members of the Boston College men's basketball team.
"It all started over the weekend toward Monday morning," Thomas Nary, Director of University Health Services and Sports Medicine said to Boston College's student newspaper, The Heights. "The common link for all but one of the patients has been Chipotle."
Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold in an email to USA TODAY offered the company's apology to people affected by the outbreak.
"The health department in Boston confirmed that norovirus was the cause of this incident (which was the speculation very early on), and that cases tied to us all occurred at a single location in Boston," Arnold said.
The Boston-area restaurant — located in Cleveland Circle — closed Tuesday for a health investigation and remained closed Wednesday.
"The restaurant is closed and it will likely remain closed for a couple of days while we do a full sanitization in the restaurant, and while all employees of that restaurant are tested for norovirus," Arnold said.
The company's shares rose 1.1% to $548.01 on Wednesday. Concerned investors had driven Chipotle shares to a 52-week low of $515 on Monday on concerns that the weekend's Boston College incident could be another E.coli outbreak. But an emerging consensus that the students were sickened by norovirus, not E.coli, helped the shares recover most of this week's losses.
Still, the stock is down 27.8% from its 52-week high of $758.61 on Aug. 5, illustrating lingering questions about the long-term effect to Chipotle's reputation and sales.
CONTRIBUTING: Aamer Madhani in Chicago.
Eight Boston College basketball players sick after eating Chipotle