Epidemiology for Public Health Practice 5th Edition by Robert Friis,Thomas Sellers

Exercise 10

A local health department epidemiologist investigated an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness thought to be associated with a college cafeteria. There were many complaints about the quality of the cafeteria's offerings, and it appeared that the students' worst expectations were confirmed when several students visited the college's infirmary during the middle of the night and the following day complaining of nausea, diarrhea, fever, vomiting, and cramps. The health department's investigation revealed that 24 students had eaten in the cafeteria immediately before the outbreak. The times between eating in the cafeteria and the development of active symptoms ranged from 20 to 36 hours. A list of foods eaten, the number of persons eating the foods, and tabulations of illness are presented in Appendix 12. Fill in the attack rates where indicated. On the basis of your calculations, answer the following questions:
a. What food or foods would you suspect caused the problem?
b. Based on the description of the clinical symptoms and the list of infectious disease agents presented in Table, which agent(s) do you think was (were) responsible?