April 5, 2010
State Oyster Beds Close Due to Widespread Stomach Viruses
Due to multiple accounts of people getting sick with stomach viruses over the last couple of weeks, several areas where oyster beds are located in Louisiana have been closed.
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals have confirmed 38 cases of illnesses in Louisiana and Mississippi from eating raw oysters, including the Norovirus and vibrio vulnificus, a disease that prompted the Federal Food and Drug Administration to consider placing restrictions on eating raw oysters last year. The oysters causing the sicknesses were traced to several parishes in Louisiana.
Oyster beds have been closed in Plaquemines, and St. Bernard parishes and parts of Lafourche and Jefferson parishes. This is the largest closure of oyster bed fields in the past ten years in the state of Louisiana.
Symptoms of the Norovirus are nausea, vomiting, fever, chills and aches similar to the flu that will last up to two days. The Norovirus is very contagious and can be passed on from person to person.
DHH has not found the actual cause of the contamination yet. It could be from someone processing the raw oysters after harvesting or from contaminated waters. So far tests in the water in suspected areas have all turned out negative.
The last outbreaks of the Norovirus occurred during the winter months in the 1990′s.
For more information on the oyster bed closures visit http://www.dhh.louisiana.gov/news.asp?ID=1&Detail=1597
