Cabot Students Continue To Report Stomach Illness

An outbreak of viral gastroenteritis continues to affect residents of Cabot House, with about 15 more students admitted to University Health Services (UHS) since Monday morning complaining of nausea, diaharrea and other-flu like symptoms.

An unreported number of other students received intravenous treatment from UHS but were not admitted, according to Cabot House Senior Tutor Robert Neugeboren.

The cases followed an outbreak of illness among Cabot House residents that began Sunday night. Nine of the 15 students admitted to UHS required a police escort to receive treatment.

Ting Wang '02, a Cabot House Undergraduate Council representative, began his own investigation of the outbreak early yesterday morning to find out more about the illness.

In an e-mail sent to all House residents, Wang outlined the reasons for his investigation and asked House members to contribute information regarding time spent in the House, whether students had reported to UHS and whether students had eaten dining hall food.

"As you know, the outbreak of stomach virus epidemic over the weekend afflicted far more than the 15 cases reported by UHS," Wang wrote in the e-mail.

"I believe the investigation by UHS was insufficient," Wang wrote. "It underreported the extent of the epidemic, underestimated the gravity of the situation, and reached a conclusion prematurely."

Last night, Wang said that 86 people--or 22.6 percent of the House--reported that they were got sick between last Saturday and this Wednesday.

According to Wang's statistics,

23 students went to UHS and 3 went to Mt. Auburn Hospital. About two-thirds of the ill students did not receive any treatment provided by the University, he said.

Though 84 out of the 86 had eaten in the Cabot Dining Hall over the course of the weekend, Wang did not find a pattern in the meals eaten among those who reported symptoms.

Wang was also able to chart the illnessess reported for each day since the virus began infecting the House. Between Monday and Wednesday morning, 44 more students reported feeling symptoms, though only one said they fell ill on Wednesday, he said.

Wang said he wanted to help determine the extent of the problem to help with possible prevention and contribute to a better understanding of the source of the virus.

"There were all these rumors flying around from the brown specks in the rice to food at the masters' open house [on Friday]," he said. "I wanted to clear all of that up."

House officials said they welcome new information about the virus, though they do not think the evidence Wang has compiled will be useful.

"It's probably a little too late for information that happened four days ago to really contribute to the [University} investigation," Neugeboren said, hours before Wang released his findings.

House officials remain on-guard to help ill students, Neugeboren said, and UHS has given the House office guidelines for treatment and diets for ill students to follow.

House Master James H. Ware, Neugeboren, representatives from UHS, the Harvard University Police Department, and Cabot Dining Hall staff will hold a discussion to respond to the concerns of Cabot residents on Monday night.

--Staff writer Nicole B. Usher can be reached at usher@fas.harvard.edu.