Surprised no one has put this online yet but it just got mentioned here at the beginning of the local news...
Health officials investigating illness cluster linked to Disney tour
By Jason Garcia, Orlando Sentinel
4:39 PM EDT, July 25, 2012
The source of the illness remains a mystery.
"It appears to be some kind of stomach bug," Weister said. "It could be food-borne, it could be water-borne, it could be something that's passed on person-to-person, it could be something that's picked up by surface."
Disney has taken several precautionary steps, including "deep cleaning" various surfaces that guests touch, distributing more hand sanitizers and reemphasizing hand-washing policies to guests and employees.
"We are working closely with the Orange County Health Department to review the situation," Disney spokeswoman Andrea Finger said.
The year-and-a-half-old Wild Africa Trek is one of the most exclusive experiences at Disney World. Guests pay from $139 to $249 per person — on top of basic park admission — for the three-hour tour, in which they pick their way through wooded overgrowth, peer over a cliff at a pool of hippos, cross a rickety bridge above Nile crocodiles and dine in a safari-style camp.
Groups are limited to no more than 12 per tour, though several are scheduled each day, with more tours held during peak periods. Disney sometimes has more than 70 people booked for the experience per day.
The county health department was alerted to the outbreak on June 11. Weister said the agency immediately inspected the kitchen at Disney World where employees prepare the food served on the trek, but they found no problems.
Investigators also began contacting guests who took the tour, beginning with those who did so during the first two weeks of June and the first week of July. A majority of the cases they found occurred during in the first week in June but a handful were also found in July, so investigators are now surveying people who took the tour in the latter half of June.
The health department has so far interviewed "hundreds" of Disney customers, Weister said. Nobody has had to be hospitalized overnight in any of the confirmed cases, he said.
"Most people we have interviewed did not even go to the doctor," he said. "They thought, in some of these interviews, that it was a simple stomach bug and they got better within two to five days."
Reported symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal pain, fatigue and nausea.
Several people have reported becoming ill on DisBoards.com, a popular forum for Disney fans. One poster said he or she was" extremely sick" by midnight the night after the tour, with vomiting that lasted for about five hours and pain, cramping and diarrhea that endured for more than a week. Another said his wife had to take him to the emergency room because of complications.
A third poster said questioning from health officials has led her to think that they are zeroing in on hand washing and common items touched by guests during the tour, including binoculars.
Weister said investigators have tested some stool samples but were unable to find a pathogen. He also said there have not been widespread reports of vomiting, suggesting that the root cause is unlikely to be norovirus, a highly contagious illness that often erupts on cruise ships, in nursing homes and in other densely populated facilities.
Weister said all evidence so far suggests the illness "was confined to this one excursion" and not widespread within the rest of the Animal Kingdom theme park, which draws approximately 9.8 million visitors per year.
"Many times we're not able to find a source," Weister said. "What we see in a lot of these cases is it boils down to hygiene. Simple hand washing — proper hand washing and hand sanitizer — because all it takes is one person that doesn't do it that has a germ on their hands and they touch a surface. And it can just take off."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/the-...-africa-trek-illness-20120725,0,5555612.story
Health officials investigating illness cluster linked to Disney tour
By Jason Garcia, Orlando Sentinel
4:39 PM EDT, July 25, 2012
Orange County health officials are investigating a cluster of illnesses linked to Walt Disney World's "Wild Africa Trek" experience, a boutique tour in which small groups get up-close access to some of the wildlife in Disney's Animal Kingdom and a catered meal served on the theme park's manmade savannah.
Investigators have documented "several dozens of cases" of illnesses among guests who took the Disney tour in June and July, said Dain Weister, a spokesman for the Orange County Department of Health.The source of the illness remains a mystery.
"It appears to be some kind of stomach bug," Weister said. "It could be food-borne, it could be water-borne, it could be something that's passed on person-to-person, it could be something that's picked up by surface."
Disney has taken several precautionary steps, including "deep cleaning" various surfaces that guests touch, distributing more hand sanitizers and reemphasizing hand-washing policies to guests and employees.
"We are working closely with the Orange County Health Department to review the situation," Disney spokeswoman Andrea Finger said.
The year-and-a-half-old Wild Africa Trek is one of the most exclusive experiences at Disney World. Guests pay from $139 to $249 per person — on top of basic park admission — for the three-hour tour, in which they pick their way through wooded overgrowth, peer over a cliff at a pool of hippos, cross a rickety bridge above Nile crocodiles and dine in a safari-style camp.
Groups are limited to no more than 12 per tour, though several are scheduled each day, with more tours held during peak periods. Disney sometimes has more than 70 people booked for the experience per day.
The county health department was alerted to the outbreak on June 11. Weister said the agency immediately inspected the kitchen at Disney World where employees prepare the food served on the trek, but they found no problems.
Investigators also began contacting guests who took the tour, beginning with those who did so during the first two weeks of June and the first week of July. A majority of the cases they found occurred during in the first week in June but a handful were also found in July, so investigators are now surveying people who took the tour in the latter half of June.
The health department has so far interviewed "hundreds" of Disney customers, Weister said. Nobody has had to be hospitalized overnight in any of the confirmed cases, he said.
"Most people we have interviewed did not even go to the doctor," he said. "They thought, in some of these interviews, that it was a simple stomach bug and they got better within two to five days."
Reported symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal pain, fatigue and nausea.
Several people have reported becoming ill on DisBoards.com, a popular forum for Disney fans. One poster said he or she was" extremely sick" by midnight the night after the tour, with vomiting that lasted for about five hours and pain, cramping and diarrhea that endured for more than a week. Another said his wife had to take him to the emergency room because of complications.
A third poster said questioning from health officials has led her to think that they are zeroing in on hand washing and common items touched by guests during the tour, including binoculars.
Weister said investigators have tested some stool samples but were unable to find a pathogen. He also said there have not been widespread reports of vomiting, suggesting that the root cause is unlikely to be norovirus, a highly contagious illness that often erupts on cruise ships, in nursing homes and in other densely populated facilities.
Weister said all evidence so far suggests the illness "was confined to this one excursion" and not widespread within the rest of the Animal Kingdom theme park, which draws approximately 9.8 million visitors per year.
"Many times we're not able to find a source," Weister said. "What we see in a lot of these cases is it boils down to hygiene. Simple hand washing — proper hand washing and hand sanitizer — because all it takes is one person that doesn't do it that has a germ on their hands and they touch a surface. And it can just take off."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/the-...-africa-trek-illness-20120725,0,5555612.story
