Like Eating Oysters? Pay Attention to This Warning

March 25, 2022.Reading time 15 minutes.

We’ve recently received multiple reports of people getting sick with norovirus-like illness (nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea) after eating raw oysters in restaurants.

Norovirus 101

January 3, 2020.Reading time 8 minutes.

If you’ve been following local news in recent weeks, you may have seen stories about outbreaks of norovirus – a highly contagious virus that causes rapid onset of vomiting and diarrhea. Norovirus is the most common cause of acute, or short-term, gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach and intestines) in the country and is responsible for […]

Love oysters? Pay attention to this warning

March 28, 2017.Reading time 11 minutes.

This blog was originally posted on March 28, 2017. We are sharing it again to remind you of the risks of eating raw or under-cooked oysters. Want to know more about raw oysters? Check out our latest post on the topic here. UPDATE 05/9/17: Public Health – Seattle & King County has received additional reports of […]

Public Health investigating possible outbreak at a Lake Sammamish swimming beach

August 29, 2016.Reading time 6 minutes.

Update 9/2/16 Tibbetts Beach at Lake Sammamish is approved to reopen. Public Health is aware of 15 people who got ill after swimming at Tibbetts Beach on Friday, August 26th. Based on their symptoms, the timing between when they swam and became ill, and the duration of illness, we suspect that the likely cause was […]

Norovirus outbreak investigation in downtown Seattle building (UPDATED)

December 5, 2015.Reading time 6 minutes.

UPDATE 12/9/15 This morning, our food protection program staff re-inspected all of the food establishments in the building and cleared them to re-open. We are requiring the food establishments and building management to use a daily cleaning and sanitation log for the next 14 days. We are not collecting more data on the magnitude of the outbreak at this point. […]

Food poisoning? Or norovirus?

December 4, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

“Uh-oh. My little brother just threw up in the hallway.” It’s not an utterance anyone wants to hear from a dinner guest. Fortunately for my reputation as a cook, it was unrelated to the food I served that evening. The child’s apologetic parents later told me that he had norovirus, a common cause of vomiting […]