A gastrointestinal sickness in 110 people might have originated from Jimmy Johns Gourmet Sandwich shops in Garden City, Kan. Nation's Restaurant News reported Monday.
The sickness is believed to be a norovirus because of the length of time from when those affected consumed the food, and symptoms began. "We are suspecting that this outbreak has been caused by norovirus," Charles Hunt, a state epidemiologist at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment told Nation's Restaurant News.
The Kansas Department of Agriculture, the organization's Food Safety and Lodging are looking into the cases which had diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, and muscle aches Nation's Restaurant News reported.
Jimmy John's has had cases in the past five years that have been because of clover or alfalfa sprouts put on sandwiches Nation's Restaurant News reported. Jimmy John's had E-coli cases last February that infected 12 individuals, and forced the franchise sandwich chain to take clover sprouts off its menu
Eighty-eight people also came down with salmonella in December 2010. October 2008 saw 16 individuals with stomach aches. Nine of these were later found to have E. coli.
"Our leading hypothesis for what's happened is that there was a contaminated produce item that was distributed to the stores," Alicia Cronquit, an epidemiologist with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment told Denver television station Fox 31. "We have not identified any food handling issues at the particular establishments that we think would contribute to illness."
"If we were to see additional cases that were potentially part of this outbreak, I think we would take different action. They look at a lot of receipts and invoices and try to take it all the way back to the source to see which one of the food items came from the same source at all three restaurants. We're happy to notify the public when we know... when we know what the food item was for sure."
