Outbreak largest in 10 years

The spread of gastroenteritis caused by norovirus is “particularly higher” when compared with previous years, Mbugua said.

The illness has been especially noticeable in North Hall B and North Hall C in Whitman College. Meredith Wright ’13, a residential college adviser on the fourth floor of North Hall B, said that out of her 14 advisees, 11 had been infected with gastroenteritis since Monday.

“Everyone was freaked out [on Monday] because everyone was getting sick at once. It was kind of upsetting,” she said.

Her last two advisees to become sick with gastroenteritis fell ill on Tuesday afternoon. However, she said that “the people who were sick on Monday are pretty much better.”

Wright is also an associate photo editor for The Daily Princetonian.

Tyler Hastie ’15 went through a similar situation in the nearby Whitman North Hall C, which is directly connected to the fourth floor of North Hall B. She calculated 11 cases of gastroenteritis in her hall.

“I first heard that people on my hall had gastro during my politics class [on Monday],” Hastie said in an email. She described the atmosphere in her hall as “pure hysteria.”

This gastroenteritis outbreak is the largest in the past 10 years, according to data recorded by The Daily Princetonian. The last outbreaks were in 2008, 2004 and 2002 affecting 60, 110 and 73 students, respectively.

However, Mbugua added that February is a month especially prone to gastroenteritis outbreaks and that McCosh Health Center “has adjusted its process and staffing levels to handle the increase in demand at the present level,” Mbugua noted.

On Tuesday morning University Health Services and the Office of Environmental Health and Safety sent a school-wide email warning about the current situation and that cases of gastroenteritis continued to be seen on campus.

“The chief cause of gastroenteritis currently on campus has been identified as norovirus,” the email said, adding that “gastroenteritis caused by norovirus can be highly contagious and can spread rapidly in closed environments, such as residential facilities.”

This email was the fourth campus hygiene advisory sent this year. All of the four emails have been related to the current gastroenteritis outbreak. The University had not sent similar warnings since the H1N1 influenza outbreak in 2009.

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The gastroenteritis outbreak has not only affected the Princeton campus. Rider University has had to deal with 123 cases of gastroenteritis since the end of January, Dan Higgins, executive director of communications at Rider University, told NJ.com.

Rider has faced criticism after eight out of 22 members of the Canisius College basketball team got sick with gastroenteritis after playing at the Rider campus.

Mbugua said that Princeton is not planning to cancel any events on campus.

He noted, however, that the University has sent out warnings to the University community urging members to control the spread of the disease by following good hygiene rules.

Neither Rutgers nor The College of New Jersey have reported cases of gastroenteritis.

Symptoms can last for two days, Mbugua said, and “most people get better in a few days.” However, he noted that gastroenteritis remains contagious even after the symptoms have subsided.