A Salmonella outbreak has affected 50 people who attended a picnic held by a State College, PA church over the weekend. No specific food has been yet identified.
https://www.centredaily.com/news/local/community/state-college/article214622710.html
At least 50 people treated at Mount Nittany after salmonella infection
By Lauren Muthler And Jeremy Hartley
lmuthler@centredaily.com
jhartley@centredaily.com
July 10, 2018 03:23 PM
Updated 1 hour 36 minutes ago
At least 50 people got sick from a reported infection at a State College area picnic over the weekend.
Grace Prep High School posted a video from founder Bob Gresh on its Facebook page Saturday announcing that at least half of the 100-150 guests at a going away picnic for a longtime teacher on Friday had fallen ill with symptoms of nausea and vomiting.
"This isn't just a flu bug where you feel bad, this is a moaning and groaning flu bug that feels horrible," he said in a later video.
Mount Nittany Medical Center confirmed that its doctors have seen 50 patients associated with a common activity since Saturday who presented gastrointestinal-type symptoms.
Gresh said the bug was confirmed to be salmonella. They do not yet know the exact source of the infection, but the state Department of Health is testing samples of food at the picnic to determine where the contamination came from.
For those in the Grace Prep and Centre Church communities, being part of a small group has been both a blessing and a curse in the aftermath of the salmonella incident.
"The challenge here is we have a pretty tight-knit community and pretty much all of them were affected, so my whole staff on the Grace Prep side was out," Gresh said. "So we've been texting and calling each other to keep up to date."
The illness was so bad that they even canceled church at Centre Church on Sunday, to prevent it from spreading. So Gresh and what was left of his staff organized the community through social media and texting to keep each other in the loop about which families were affected, how their symptoms were being treated and what they needed.
He said the few remaining healthy members have been going over to peoples' homes and delivering them soup, walking their dogs, watering their flowers, and whatever else they might need.
"Our school has about 70-65 kids and we like to keep it that way, and in situations like this, it shows how close people are and how much of a family we are at Grace Prep," Gresh said.
Another challenge Grace Prep is facing with the illness is getting their students ready for their mission trip to Zambia on Wednesday.
Fortunately for those going on the trip, the vaccinations they took to ward off illness in Zambia kept them from getting as sick as some of the others at the picnic. But with their parents out, other members of the community have stepped up to help them pack and prepare for their trip.
"I hope they'll be able to go, because they worked very hard to get there," Gresh said.
Read more here: https://www.centredaily.com/news/local/community/state-college/article214622710.html#storylink=cpy
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