160 Stricken After Eating at Ohio Hotel Being Tested

People who became ill after eating at a local hotel lined up for tests Friday, and health officials said they suspected that at least 160 people had been sickened by a virus blamed for a similar outbreak in 1984.

“I was horrible, miserable for 24 hours,” said Dr. John Matthews, one of those tested.

Matthews, who attended a weekend computer conference at the Dayton Marriott Hotel, said he became ill Sunday night but did not alert health authorities until he called another person who attended the conference and found out that that person also had been ill. A wedding reception was held at the hotel the same night.

At least three people were hospitalized, said Terry L. Wright, supervisor of general services for the Montgomery County Combined Health District.

Some Fault Salad

Some who were ill said a salad seemed to be the common thread. Wright suspected that the virus might be spread by hotel workers.

Dr. Morton Nelson, county health commissioner, said that as many as 600 people who ate at the hotel from Saturday night to Wednesday could be at risk. If the sickness is food poisoning, it is one of the largest outbreaks of that illness in the country, he said.

The incubation period of 24 to 48 hours and the fact that family members who had not been at the Marriott also were getting ill was consistent with the Norwalk virus, he said.

The virus first was discovered in Norwalk in northern Ohio in 1968. The 1984 outbreak, in the Dayton area, was traced to lettuce on which the virus was able to survive, Nelson said.

The health district enlisted the aid of the national Centers for Disease Control and the Ohio Health Department in tracking down the source of the problem.

Food, Blood Tests

The state health department was testing food, a spokesman said. The CDC will test blood for evidence of the virus, Wright said. It could take at least four weeks to get the blood samples from people and months to finish the tests, he said.

“What we’re thinking is, there’s some infected employees who are handling food, who are infecting each other,” Wright said.

The symptoms include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting and severe diarrhea, Nelson said.