Cabot House Stomach Virus Strikes Again

To the editors:



Though I feel sympathy for the Cabot House students who were sickened by a mysterious stomach virus, I had to chuckle at your coverage of the phenomenon (“Stomach Virus Sweeps Cabot,” news, Jan. 13). Those of us who were around in the spring of 2001 remember an identical outbreak of gastroenteritis, oddly affecting only Cabot House residents, reported with similar straightforward credulity in the Crimson—and wholly unmentioned in the article about this year’s illness.

I remember the 2001 incident vividly: Harvard University Police Department officers came door to door in the wee hours, asking for sick students and spiriting them away (including my roommate). The stricken ended up at Stillman Infirmary, which, like this year, was frustratingly incapable of handling the mysterious epidemic. Director of Harvard University Health Services David Rosenthal ’59 calmed the masses by insisting that the outbreak was unrelated to dining hall food, the Crimson ran a “gee-that’s-odd” article, and the incident was ultimately forgotten.

Such are the limitations of belonging to a transitory four-year academic institution. Identical incidents that happen five years apart may as well take place at separate universities, so poor is our institutional memory about student life. So to the residents of Cabot House, I say: fear not, as you are not alone in your suffering. My roommate has recovered fully, life has moved on, and your experience is trivial compared to the Cabot House bug of 2011.



JOHN E. RASKIN ’03

New York, N.Y.



January 17, 2006