P.E.I. shellfish festival gastrointestinal illness outbreak largest in province's history: health officer

A basket of oysters is ready for packaging and delivery in this file photo. (Source: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

The Chief Public Health Officer of Prince Edward Island said the recent gastrointestinal illness reported at a shellfish festival is the largest outbreak in the province’s recorded history.

More than 550 people were symptomatic after gastrointestinal illness was reported at the Prince Edward Island International Shellfish Festival last weekend. Four people went to emergency departments and one person was hospitalized, according to a news release from the Department of Health and Wellness.

“This is the largest gastrointestinal illness outbreak that we have any record of in P.E.I. It’s certainly impacted a lot of people. We have a certain number of gastrointestinal illness outbreaks that occur any given year, but this is the largest,” said Dr. Heather Morrison, chief public officer. 

Morrison said information on the cause of the illness was gathered from the 550 symptomatic people who completed the online questionnaire, interviews with 26 staff from the festival and cooperation from the organizers as well as the positive stool samples.

The Chief Public Health Office launched an investigation into the outbreak at the shellfish festival, which was held between Sept. 19 and 22.

The health office identified norovirus from stool samples from symptomatic people who ate at the festival. Norovirus transmits by:

• eating food or drinking liquids contaminated by the virus
• having direct contact with someone infected with the virus, such as sharing food or utensils with them
• touching surfaces or objects contaminated with the virus and then putting your fingers in your mouth

“Together, all of this information certainly makes sense to us that it is norovirus and it was confirmed in the stool samples,” said Morrison. 

Festival attendee Holly Noël and her 24-year-old son got sick at the event, but now feel much better.

“But boy, there was three days there were it was not good,” said Noël.

Her symptoms were vomiting, diarrhea, body aches, chills and intense fatigue.

“I couldn’t even get out of bed for a couple of days,” she said.

The health-care professional isn’t surprised the province has identified norovirus as the cause of illness because she was already aware of what the symptoms are like.

“That was definitely a suspect, so I’m glad that the Department of Health did their due diligence and got to the bottom of it,” said Noël.

“The really good news is that people seem to have recovered very quickly,” said Morrison. “The people that have been to the hospital, even the person who was hospitalized, our understanding is everyone is doing better.”

Noël would like to see precautions taken against a wide-spread illness occurring at the festival again.

“I really enjoyed the shellfish festival. We had a wonderful time and I think it’s really important that the city continue to promote festivals like that. I think it’s important to tourism so I certainly wouldn’t like to see that industry impacted from it. But it’s also people’s health and safety, that’s very important as well and there should be definitely better precautions taken in the future,” said Noël.

The health office noted the festival is a large event with a “significant volume of high-risk foods.” It made six recommendations for future events, including:

• more health inspections before and during the festival
• maintaining samples of prepared foods in cold storage for at least 48 hours after the event ends
• enhancing food preparation area and common touch surface sanitation to prevent cross-contamination
• working with a sanitation company to ensure washroom common touch surfaces are decontaminated daily
• developing a policy excluding staff and food handlers from working when they are ill and having a dedicated staff person check with workers about any possible sicknesses
• having easily visible handwashing stations at all washrooms and ensuring they are re-filled during the event

As for whether or not she would attend the festival again, Noël isn’t sure.

“I like the idea of going again. I don’t know mentally if I’ve recovered enough that I can say yes to that question,” said Noël.

For more Prince Edward Island news, visit our dedicated provincial page.