Church Pot Luck Leaves Dozens with Food Poisoning
Published at
iStock/Thinkstock(LOGANDALE, Nev.) — Authorities believe food poisoning caused more than 100 people to become sick this week following a potluck dinner at a Mormon church in Nevada last weekend.
A local hospital in Logandale, Nev., was inundated with twice the number of patients than normal earlier in the week and new patients were still coming to the clinic Friday, said an official at MesaView Quick Care, unauthorized to talk to the media due to privacy concerns.
“We had 80 people here on Monday. Just today we had three more patients who were at the potluck come in,” the official said.
Patients have been complaining of aches, headaches, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Most have been sent home, but some have been given intravenous fluids, the official said.
There was a concern early in the week that the illness may have been caused by an infectious airborne disease, but state officials determined food poisoning was the cause of the outbreak.
Officials with the Southern Nevada Health District called the outbreak “isolated and not contagious.”
State health officials have been in the town all week, coordinating with hospitals and clergy at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
“We’ve worked very closely with organizers of the event. They’ve done a very good job of coordinating with those who participated in the event. We don’t believe any other members of the public are affected by this,” Nancy Williams, a spokeswoman for SNHD, told ABC affiliate KTNV-TV.
Authorities have not determined which dish or dishes served at the dinner caused the outbreak.
“Our hearts go out, not only to the people that are sick, but those that are helping them,” church president Matt Messer told the station.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio