BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD)– Nearly 40 people in Louisiana are sick after consuming recalled oysters from Texas.
The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) said this outbreak is still impacting consumers on the national level.
“It seems they’ve encountered some of these illnesses and have begun to launch an investigation,” stated LDH Chief of Specialty Operations for Sanitary and Services.
Gremillion said state residents are contracting an illness called Norovirus from oysters harvested in Galveston, Texas.
“It’s more of, like, just a stomach virus. Of course, those can range in severity. Symptoms are nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal cramps. Sometimes it’s associated with a little bit of fever,” he said.
Right now he’s trying to track down the cases in Louisiana, where approximately 40 individuals have gotten sick as of December 12.
“There are consumers that could have purchased their oysters from grocery stores that are dealers and able to sell,” he explained. “They could have purchased them straight from the docks in some cases. All of the cases so far have been traced back to raw consumption in restaurants.”
Gremillion noted that the harvest area in many states are typically inspected, but Texas is still investigating how this incident flew under the radar.
“It is usually from fecal matter sewage that potentially could have contaminated the harvest areas,” he said.
He assures people that Louisiana oysters are safe, but it’s important to make sure you know where your oysters are coming from.
“Ask your restaurant where their oysters came from. Again, we know that these do not affect Louisiana oysters at this time,” he said.
LDH advises anyone who feels sick after eating oysters to make sure they contact their physician and their public health inspector.
Users who need to contact their public health inspector can click here.