Stomach Virus Sweeps Cabot

An unusually high number of Cabot students became ill with a 24-hour stomach virus that spread rapidly amongst residents earlier this week.

Harvard University Health Services (UHS) saw roughly 15 Cabot students suffering from gastroenteritis between late Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, according to UHS Director David S. Rosenthal.

This represents a spike in occurrences, said Rosenthal, who added that UHS generally sees between six and eight cases of gastroenteritis per week in the winter.

The increase and concentrated area of cases suggest that the virus was likely “communally transmitted, or came from one common source” within the House, said Rosenthal.

Gastroenteritis is more likely in the winter than in other times, as more people tend to stay within close quarters surrounded by possibly viral germs for longer periods of time, said Joseph Griffin, Director of Harvard’s Department of Environmental Health and Safety.

Rosenthal emphasized that the symptoms reflect a viral, not bacterial, infection—ruling out food poisoning as a cause of sickness.

After a few students began suffering from nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea last Saturday night, Cabot House Allston Burr Resident Dean Stephen H. Kargere, along with university health and sanitation services, sent an e-mail to Cabot students reinforcing the importance of washing their hands before eating and after using the restroom.

He also advised them not to try to clean up any visible vomit by themselves, so as not to transfer the virus, but instead to call facilities maintenance.

As the virus continued to spread this week, students were advised to call the Harvard University Police Department or UHS, both of which sent numerous ambulances to Cabot to transfer students to UHS.

Rosenthal said that UHS admitted around six people into Stillman Infirmary for treatment and sent two to Mt. Auburn Hospital.

Amongst the sick students, opinions differ regarding the University’s response to the outbreak.

Cabot sophomore Stefan J. Wernli, who was admitted to Mt. Auburn on Monday night, said the University did was efficient and helpful in advising students to call the hospital and arranging them transfer.

However, Cabot junior Steven C. Seidel said he was disappointed with UHS’s inability to accommodate all students. Seidel went to UHS but was turned away when he was told he was not sick enough to be admitted to the already full hospital.

He said the University should have alternatives so as not to turn ill students away, allowing them to potentially infect others.

Wernli also mentioned rumors that part of the reason the virus spread so rapidly was because of vomit and diarrhea in some of the Cabot tunnels that was not immediately cleaned away.

However, now that the spread of the virus has been slowed and most of the students have recovered, the mood around the house is light-hearted, said Kargere and numerous Cabot students. Cabot House sophomore Matthew T. Valji created a Facebook group titled “The Cabot Virus Sucks Ass.” Others have suggested making t-shirts celebrating their survival. Upon first mention of the virus, Kargere referred to it as “the plague.”

Cabot and Harvard were not alone in suffering an increase in the occurrence of the virus. On January 11, the Boston Public Health Commission issued a health alert reporting an increase in gastroenteritis cases across the area this year.

Within Cabot, though, many students said they were heartened by the fact that they took ill earlier in reading period, rather than during finals.

“We were very happy it wasn’t the next week,” Halji said. “Then all of our lives would’ve been ruined.”

—Staff writer Benjamin L. Weintraub can be reached at bweintr@fas.harvard.edu.