Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
Saitama prefectural health officials said Thursday that 24 people have fallen ill after dining at a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant in Gyoda.
Officials said the 24 were taken to hospital after experiencing diarrhea and vomiting. Three of them were diagnosed with having the norovirus. TBS said all 24 -- ranging in age from 10 to 78 -- ate at Gaten sushi restaurant on Jan 2-3. Four staff also were suffering from the norovirus, officials said.
A man in his 70s who ate at the restaurant on Jan 2 died on Jan 4 but hospital officials said the norovirus was not the case, TBS reported.
The restaurant was ordered closed for three days until Saturday.
© Japan Today
6 Comments
Login to comment
Disillusioned
Oh my dog! Was this article written by a high school kid? What is the point? It's just a collection of non-conclusive dribble! Is the sushi restaurant a hub for noro virus? Did the people get sick from eating sushi? Is it just a coincidence they all got sick but only some got noro virus? Why is it important to 'name and shame' the restaurant when there is no direct link to the restaurant?
nath
Saitama, my Saitama. Never in the good part of the news.
cleo
If four of the staff check positive for norovirus, them most likely, almost certainly, Yes.
Not necessarily, though of course the possibility is strong. If four staff members are touching anything that customers subsequently touch - plates, teacups, napkins, toilet door handles - that could just as easily pass on the virus. Noro is extremely infectious.
Noro can be quite difficult to diagnose without lengthy tests. Most people just get told they have a viral stomach infection. Just because 'only' seven people were positively diagnosed, it doesn't mean the others weren't infected with noro. In fact if one person was positively diagnosed, the odds are strongly in favour of all those complaining of symptoms being infected with noro. Since there is no specific drug treatment for the norovirus - all you can do is try to ameliorate the symptoms and keep the person hydrated until the infection plays itself out, usually a week or so, and the person remains potentially capable of infecting others for up to a week after symptoms have disappeared - there would be no need to carry out tests on all the patients.
Noro is very, very unpleasant. My commiserations to all those affected.
If you have a 'stomach virus' or a 'stomach cold', don't prepare food for others to consume, in fact stay out of the kitchen altogether, and don't think a little cotton mask will prevent you infecting others. Don't be brave and go into work. Stay home and once you're feeling up to it, disinfect the toilet as well as any and every surface you may have touched, with a bleach solution.
Apsara
I second noro being massively infectious- we accidentally took it overseas from Japan one Christmas (developed symptoms just after the plane landed basically, and within a week about 10 family members who were at a Christmas party had come down with it. About the sickest I've been in my life. Basically if you use a toilet that a person with noro has used in the last few days, you are in trouble- that's probably what happened at the sushi restaurant.
smithinjapan
Got it once at a Christmas party after being given a piece of hand-made sweet potato at a staff party. Was a nasty Christmas, but fortunately I did not infect anyone else as I was living alone at the time and just stayed in. Went back to work early January and we all swapped winter vacation stories and when I said the night of the party when I got home I was suddenly and violently ill, everyone else said the same, except the woman who made the pie who looked quite sad and apologized to everyone. I felt bad for her because she didn't know, obviously, she was spreading it, but obviously it can easily be spread. I usually no longer eat hand-made sweets or what have you at parties in the winter season especially.
So, yes, it's very likely that with the staff having had it it was spread via food in this hotel. Be sanitary, people!
nath
Darn, and I had to travel all the way to the Philippines to get the same symptoms! Could have just went to Saitama. Seriously, food poisoning is no fun and very dangerous. Stay safe!