Community Health Middle School Officials Have Been

Community Health

Middle school officials have been reporting a rash of mysterious absences recently. Upon examining information given by those officials and corellated by health department staff there appears to be a pattern to the absences. In the month of April there were only minor similarities in time and occurence of these absences in two schools. In contrast, in the month of May there were quite a few absences in two of the schools, Jackson and Truman, but not in the others.

The similarities first appear in the period of late April to early May, but those are few in number. The spike in absences occurs in May, from the 19th to 25th. There are two hypotheses for these occurences. The first hypotheses is that the absences are due to something as simple as the common cold. The second hypotheses for the spike in absenses is food poisoning or a special contagion, such as the West Nile Virus.

On May 19th the bands at both schools competed in a "Battle of the Bands" for school supremacy. When groups get together for any type of competition they typically eat together at either restaurants or catered parties. Either are breeding grounds for possible food poisoning. During the interviews of the school officials and parents no questions were asked about eating arrangements but were instead confined to questions about the illnesses and students involved.

In an attempt to prove the second hypotheses two seperate restaurants were inspected: Take Your Chances and Delicious. During these inspections numerous violations were found.

At Take Your Chances The first thing to be noted was the ceiling having missing panels, dangerously exposing wiring. In the walk-in freezer shelves were found to be dirty. Cloths used for wiping down counters were not being cleaned and rinsed in sanitizing solution as frequently as required. Not doing so would allow germs to be spread, resulting in possible illness. The open ceiling and exposed wiring would allow dust and possible bacteria to drop onto food and preparation areas. Bacteria can contaminate food and can be found on surfaces that the food comes into contact with. With most food poisoning cases, the bacteria in food begin to infect and attack the intestines as soon as the food is swallowed (Food, 2011).

At Delicious the lowest shelf in the walk-in freezer is only six inches from the floor, leaving food open to possible contamination from germs on the floor. Food thermometers were not being used by employees. All prepared food must meet government regulations as to temperature so that bacteria will be destroyed and salmonella will not develop. Salmonella typhimurium and S. enteritidis are the two main kinds of salmonella that infect food in the United States. These strands of salmonella attack meats -- poultry in particular. They can also be found in raw vegetables and peanuts (Food, 2011). Such nonuse of thermometers could lead to the development and spread of salmonella, and thus food poisoning.

Meat can also become infected with food poisoning after being left out in the heat or at room temperature for too long before or after it is cooked. E.coli is another potentially deadly form of bacteria that leads to food poisoning and can be found in meats and can cross-contaminate other food sources rapidly. E.coli can damage the lining of the intestine and even cause kidney failure (Food, 2011).

It is unknown at this point if both bands ate at either of these restaurants but the possibility exists. If so it is also possible that students contracted food poisoning due to unsanitary conditions and inspection violations. Students from both Truman (T) and Jackson (J) middle schools who became ill had many of the same symptons. Related ailments are as follows:

T-1, to T-6, and T-8, to T-10, J-2 to J-8, all were sick. Research has shown that, although not all were identical, the symptoms were similar enough. This is not unusual, as people will react differently to the same types of illness. However, enough similarities existed to show this to be a stomach illness.

Interviewing officials and parents showed the students all had stomach problems with diarrhea: T-3, T-4, T-5, T-6, T-8, T-9, T-10, J-2, to J-6, and J-8. The symptoms that followed were fever: T-1, T-2, T-5, T-9, T-10, J-3, J-4, and J-6 all had it., followed by headaches: T-1, T-3, T-8, J-3, J-5, J-7, J-8, and finally vomiting: T-2, T-6, T-10, J-2.