Students at Boston College have received the following email regarding an outbreak of gastroinestinal illness.
Although Chipotle is mentioned in the email, there is not any evidence at this time conclusively determining that eating at Chipotle caused any of the illnesses. Chipotle management temporarily closed the Chipotle at Cleveland Circle.
E. coli was also mentioned in the email, but again, it does not appear that any test results have determined that the pathogen involved is E. coli. Symptoms of E. coli food poisoning include severe abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea, with onset of illness after eating contaminated food about 3 to 10 days.
With 28 students having onset of illness at about the same time, this could be norovirus. Symptoms of norovirus include the following:
- nausea
- diarrhea
- vomiting
- abdominal pain
- headache
- low-grade fever.
Symptoms usually occur one to two days after initial infection and last from twenty-four to sixty hours.