The nearly 200 students who have fallen ill at Humber College’s north campus have exhibited symptoms that are consistent with a norovirus, a Toronto Public Health official tells CP24.
Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Michael Finkelstein made the comment to CP24 on Sunday amid an ongoing investigation into what has caused the students to become sick.
“The signs and a symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea have been associated with norovirus in the past and that certainly is possible but we continue to investigate,” he said.
Since Thursday, about 40 students have visited the emergency room, however only one of those students was actually admitted to hospital.
Finkelstein told CP24 that Humber officials are “doing their best” to clean surfaces and help stem the spread of the illness.
“It (norovirus) can be foodborne. You can get food contaminated with the norovirus. But it can also easily be passed from person to person so disentangling that can be hard,” he said. “In both situations really the focus should be on cleaning up the environment, including high touch surfaces like washrooms.”
In a statement provided to CP24 earlier on Sunday, Humber College said that all food premises will be “provided with updated food safety control practices and procedures” in light of the mysterious illness.
“Given the numbers we’ve seen in residence, it seems quite likely that residence is the original place, but we are expanding all our cleaning protocols and all of our handwashing hygiene across campus to ensure we don’t contribute to any potential spread,” Dean of Students Jen McMillen told CP24 later Sunday.
