A mass food poisoning outbreak at a seafood distributor left 46 sufferers hospitalized after they all ate the same dish, according to reports.
The incident is said to have struck down dozens of people at the North Atlantic Fish Company (NAFCO) Wholesale Seafood Distributors in Jessup, Maryland, on Monday. Paramedics from the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services raced to the scene after scores of people fell ill simultaneously at the industrial site at around 3:45 p.m., according to local news channel Fox 5.
Food poisoning is caused by consuming a meal contaminated with certain germs, such as salmonella or E.coli. Some types of foodborne illness make people sick within a few hours after eating the dish, while others may develop after a few days, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Symptoms are unpleasant for the victims, with most typically suffering from diarrhea, stomach cramps, vomiting, and fever. Symptoms run the gamut from mild to serious, and may last for between a few hours or even several days. The condition can be life-threatening in some cases.
The scale of Monday's reported incident saw emergency teams from Anne Arundel County and Baltimore County also mobilized to help Howard County's crews. After evaluation, all the affected victims needed to be taken to nearby hospitals for treatment. None of the patients were in critical condition, according to reports.
Very little is known about the incident so far, and it is unclear what meal the affected patients ate to make them sick. Newsweek has reached out by email to NAFCO seeking further information and comment.
Photos and a short promotional video clip on the seafood firm's website show dozens of employees working in the plant to process fish. Staff wearing protective blue gowns, gloves, and hard hats are shown sorting and cleaning the fish, packaging it, and freezing it.
The incident at NAFCO comes just months after another mass food poisoning incident hit the news. An outbreak at TikTok parent company ByteDance left at least 60 workers sick in Singapore in July. Multiple employees fell suddenly sick and 17 ambulances were dispatched to the site, after the workers suffered abdominal pain and vomiting.
Food poisoning is likely to affect more people in the future as humid temperatures—which allows strains of bacteria to form and thrive—become more common due to climate change, microbiologists have warned. "Climate change will increase the risk of foodborne illness from consumption of raw produce," said Professor Jeri Barak, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who unveiled the results of a study in August.
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