GU virus had common source

Lab tests have confirmed that the gastrointestinal illness that affected about 60 students at Gonzaga University late last week and over the weekend is a norovirus, the Spokane Regional Health District said Tuesday.

“All indications are that there was a common source exposure, which resulted in a fairly widespread illness,” said Dr. Kim Thorburn, Spokane County health officer.

Whatever the source of exposure was, it is no longer a problem, Thorburn said in a statement, “because there has been a downward trend in new illness.”

She said health district officials who visited food services on the campus are “impressed with their food safety measures.” Sodexho Marriott Food Services and the health district are reviewing food-handling protocols at Gonzaga to minimize the possibility of contamination.

Campus food services are operating as normal, the health district reported.

The highly contagious norovirus spreads from person to person or through food handled by a sick individual. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, as well as abdominal pain, chills or fever and body aches. The gastroenteritis caused by the virus usually lasts from one to two days, the health district said.