Officials: Children’s symptoms similar
to Andrew students’
About 15 kindergartners from a Chicago parochial school became ill after a recent visit to the Shedd Aquarium, exhibiting the same noroviruslike symptoms as students from Andrew High School in Tinley Park that held its prom at the aquarium, Chicago Archdiocese and public health representatives said Thursday.
Health officials have not yet pinpointed the source of what sickened students from St. Clement School in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood following their April 17 visit to the aquarium, or what prompted more than 100 Andrew students to fall ill following their April 27 prom held there.
According to archdiocese spokeswoman Anne Maselli, 52 students were in the group of kindergartners that visited the aquarium, although students didn’t eat there.
The school was unsure at the time what caused the students to become sick but notified the aquarium and the bus company, Maselli said. After learning of the Andrew students coming down with similar illnesses, St. Clement again contacted the aquarium and state health officials, she said in an email.
She said the school is checking with families of children who became ill to see whether they visited a doctor and were formally diagnosed.
A Chicago Department of Public Health spokeswoman said Thursday that there has not yet been a determination of what made the St. Clements children ill.
Andrea Rodgers, a spokeswoman for the Shedd Aquarium, said the facility will continue to work with city, Cook County and state officials “on any inquiry,” but that the city health department “informed us that there are no outstanding violations to any of our catering or restaurant facilities and no restrictions to operations.”
The aquarium has hosted other “large private catering” events, including a prom, since the Andrew prom, and neither the aquarium nor city health officials have received any reports of similar illness “from the approximate 23,000 guests and hundreds of staff and volunteers who have visited over the last five days,” Rodgers said.
She said the aquarium has taken “several extra precautionary measures over the last few days,” including an “additional deep sanitation of all areas of the aquarium, an internal review of all food preparation, service processes and environmental cleaning procedures.”
Cook County health officials said they had not yet determined the illness among some 111 Andrew students but that their symptoms were consistent with norovirus. About 400 people had attended the prom at the aquarium.
Norovirus spreads quickly and is found in the vomit or feces of those infected with the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is transmitted by consuming contaminated food or drink or by touching contaminated surfaces or objects, then putting your hand in your mouth, according to the CDC.
A spokeswoman for the Cook County Department of Public Health said Thursday there was no update regarding the investigation into what sickened the Andrew students.
