Sick food handler likely culprit in recent shigella outbreak
A policy that tells workers they should inform the boss that they don’t feel well may have done much to prevent the recent shigella outbreak that occurred late last month over the long Memorial Day Weekend.
More than 60 confirmed cases of people getting hospitalized with shigella symptoms were reported to the Texas State Health Department by hospitals, medical clinics and doctor’s offices in Hallettsville, Shiner, Gonzales, Yoakum, Moulton, Victoria, Schulenburg, Flatonia, La Grange, Weimar and Columbus.
All the cases reported thus far involved people who claimed they had eaten recently at Hallettsville’s Cabos San Lucas Restaurant, which is set on the city’s northern edge along the Schulenburg highway
According to documents obtained from the Texas Department of Health, the primary vector identified by the state in this case is this: “The permit holder did not require food employees to report to the person in charge information about their health and activities as they relate to diseases that are transmissible through food.”
As multiple food products, food prep surfaces, bus carts, serving platters and even menus were tested as well as other surfaces, from floors to light switches, facet and door handles, as well as other exposed surfaces in bathrooms and/or food prep or food service areas, the fact that this is the lone item mentioned suggests a few things:
• Shigella did not likely show up in a food product or it would have been listed. • Similarly, if shigella had turned up any significant quantities on items like door handles or a batch of menus, it again would have been listed.
The newspaper spoke Friday with attorney Jory Lange of the Lange Law Firm out of Houston, the same firm which has advertised within our own pages and has run several Facebook ads as well. He says he now represents 30 clients who have asked him to negotiate what he termed “a fair settlement,” on their behalf.
Lange also had copies of the state reports.
“(The item listed as likely vector) is really important for a restaurant,” he said. “Restaurants with good policies have policies requiring employees who handle food to inform the manager when they are sick with diseases that are transmissible through food. If Cabos San Lucas had had this policy, and enforced it, none of their customers would have gotten Shigella from eating there. If Cabos San Lucas had had this policy, there would not have been an outbreak. When a restaurant lets sick employees make and serve people food, it’s a recipe for a food poisoning outbreak,” he said.
