Wild Africa Trek possible food illness. UPDATE - Final Report

[BebopBaloo]

now on national news... I'm sure Disney wants this resolved ASAP.. not that they didn't already..

 

[traviesojmt]

Shepard Smith on FoxNews just did a story on it as well. I immediately thought of this thread.

 

[Phatoomch]

Thanks for that - again, it just backs up beliefs about Hand santizers being practically useless. These results are done using the NORWALK virus as mentioned in above article:

Results of hand cleaners: The results reported were for the RNase treated samples only, so this data reflects the effects of the cleaners on live infectious virus. Compared to the baseline control, the liquid hand soap had the greatest reduction in NV cDNA (0.67 Log 10), followed by the reduction from just a simple water rinse (0.58 Log 10). The alcohol based sanitizer reduced the virus the least, only 0.27 Log 10.

Read full article here: http://bitesizebio.com/articles/does-hand-sanitizer-and-liquid-hand-soap-remove-viruses/

Sorry ^^^ quoting myself from another thread. I mentioned earlier in this thread about soap and water being more effective than hand-sanitizers. Fox News mentions the Norwalk virus and the article above is a study on the best way to protect yourself - sanitizers came out bottom.

 

[mattsdragon]

The power of the DIS. Fear us Mainstreet Media.

 

[Mouse511]

They did this story in my local news here in CT as well.......the power of the DISboards......

 

[padkins]

I read some of the articles after a friend saw it in national news and let me know. The issue I have with them saying it is a virus is that I never gave it to anyone in my party and there were seven of us. My two small children and I shared drinks the whole next day and neither of them got sick nor did my husband.
Also hand washing and sanitizer was mentioned but we all had the same opportunities to clean. We were not allowed any personal items so it's not like certain people constantly brought out their hand sanitizer and others didn't. There were two or three times where they provide sanitizer and one chance to use the bathroom and wash hands. I took advantage of both and still got extremely sick.
I have had stomach virus many times and it didn't feel like this. This was more painful and lasted longer. I still feel that it was food borne, but could be wrong. I am glad that Disney is doing all they can to prevent further illness.

 

[Fantasmic303]

We enjoyed our tour less than two weeks ago, and I'm happy to report neither I nor my sister experienced any sort of illness afterwards. I was a little anxious about it due to this thread but decided to give it a shot. We had no issues.

As a disclaimer, however, I do have to note that we did not have any fish in our lunches for allergy reasons.

 

[Conservative Hippie]

My husband and I were on the June 9 tour, don't remember what time (maybe 12:30?). I was contacted by the health department about a week or two ago. We both ate the food (all of it - DH didn't care for the salmon and I finished his) and neither one of us got sick. Neither one of us was sick in the weeks leading up to the trek. I remember washing my hands as soon as we got off the truck for lunch, but I don't remember if DH did. When I first heard about it, I wondered if some people just had trouble with the curry. But apparently it is too severe and too widespread to just be indigestion from the spices! It's a shame you had that experience ruined by getting sick!

 

[Conservative Hippie]

Another thing she wanted to verify was if we filled up our water canteens at the harness station (at the beginning of the trek) and at the midway point. We did, but my daughter and I didn't drink very much water because I wasn't sure when/if a bathroom would be available. The Health Department rep also asked if we washed our hands at Animal Kingdom AFTER the Trek was done (we had).

I feel so bad for the folks that got sick, and I hope that Disney/Orange County Health Department find out the source of this so it never happens again. I'm very impressed at the thoroughness of the questions I was asked, and I'm glad they are taking this seriously.

I was also asked specific questions about the water stations. I wonder if that was the contamination point. DH and I filled our canteens at the beginning, but did not drink from them. Then when we got to the second water station, we realized we had not been drinking and the water in our canteens was hot, so we poured it out and refilled with fresh water, and drank that.

 

[MinnieMSue]

First post but long time lurker, I took the trek with my 8yr old DD 7/23 with much fear from this. I did not tell my child about the problem but did insist she wash well before lunch. I privately asked an employee about the illnesses and they said they were working very hard to get it resolved - but what else would they say? We took 9:30 trek and had the breakfast version of food. I did notice no melon - it was fresh fruit cups - blueberries, pineapple, strawberries, maybe watermellon. All very finely cut up. We did have the dried beef and the salmon/cream cheese roll but they had a type of slaw under it that did not seem to have much if any mayo on it. I ate the salmon but not the slaw. They also had fig bread, yogurt with granola, pita bread. I did drink the Jamba juice. I did fill my water at the beginning of trek but didn't refill although my daughter did refill. The kids meal had even safer foods, trail mix, the fruit and yogurt and a granola bar. Oh, and my daughter ate my flower. I noticed only 1/2 of the group washed hands before eating. They gave us hand sanitizer wipes after lunch. As far as handling equipment - I didn't use the binoculars, my child did. I had a very anxious few days but no illness for either one of us

 

[mybabesuz]

We stayed at Kidani the end of April.
We ate at Boma on our last day.
The next morning my DD (6) was very sick.
That night I got sick.
Everyone in my family ended up sick within 1-3 days.

I was sicker than I can ever remember being with a stomach flu.
Two of us ended up at the ER with Dehydration.
My stomach hurt for a month!
It sound the same as described here.
5-8 hours of violent vomiting, severe stomach pain, diarrhea for about a week.

We just returned from another stay last weekend.
On our last day my DD started getting sick, just a bad cold this time.

Last July when we stay at Kidani several members in our party got the stomach flu
and were vomiting for about 8-12 hours.

We wash our hands frequently and use lots of hand sanitizer.
I am just really tired of getting sick everytime we go.

We stayed at Beach Club last December and no one got sick.

As much as we like AKV we were thinking maybe next time we would try another resort.

We also didn't go to Animal Kingdom Park in December.

 

[pilferk]

Been following this thread, with some interest, for awhile. nbcnews.com is running a story on this, now:

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/201...ness-sickens-disney-africa-trek-visitors?lite

 

[pequele]

There has been beef recalled from local supermarkets in New England recently due to Salmonella. I'm not sure about too much of that story as I don't eat beef wonder if there could be a link with the supplier though?

 

[texdisneygal]

I have this booked for first week in August. I might want to cancel....I don't want to take any chance of getting sick and I have guests with me and this is a 10 year anniversary present for them. Do you think W=Disney is going to give me a problem? i know it non refundable but in this case?

We were told there was a 2 day cancellation policy.

We went on the tour 7/25 and had a great time - fortunately without illness. They did serve melon, and everyone used hand sanitizer before eating.

 

[rkdahl]

I have this booked for first week in August. I might want to cancel....I don't want to take any chance of getting sick and I have guests with me and this is a 10 year anniversary present for them. Do you think W=Disney is going to give me a problem? i know it non refundable but in this case?

I was one of the first to get sick. However, based on the reports we have seen the last several weeks I would guess that the original problem no longer exists. It appears to have been resolved either by brute force cleaning or a change to food handling or someone who was sick handling food is no longer sick. Since the cause for this has not been found, as of yet, we cannot be sure it's completely eliminated. Given the focus this has had recently I would guess if there were additional illnesses occurring we would have heard of that by now.

So after all that rambling, and even though I was terribly sick for one week, if someone asked me to go on the Trek again today (and they paid for it!) I would go. I have to believe enough focus has been on this that one way or another it has been taken care of.

Also, interesting to note, the hand washing/sanitizing discussion. I am diligent about hand washing generally. The day we took our tour, June 8th, we checked in for the tour, I then went in and washed my hands and then we started the tour. Prior to eating at the pavilion I did not wash my hands again. So it was either in the food or drink, or I picked something up after the tour started and prior to eating. I personally believe it was a food handling or food/drink quality issue. But that's speculation on my part. We may never know.

 

[disneyyes]

Two friends and I went on the Wild Africa Trek on July 10th, the 12:30 tour, and none of us got sick. Felt like we were going to get heat stroke, but that's par for the course in July at WDW! LOL

I think we ate everything that was served to us, including the orchid. We have not received any phone calls from Disney, which I'm kind of surprised about, because I think I read that some folks from the July 9th tour did receive calls.

As stated by others, it was a fantastic tour and I would definitely do it again!

 

[rkdahl]

I spoke to Disney and The Orange County health department yesterday to get an update on how the investigation is proceeding. In two words, "it's progressing", was the common theme. The health department said they are completing the interview process and the investigation is now in the hands of the Epidemiology team there. They are continuing to look at all angles for the possible cause of this outbreak. I asked how much longer this would take, the reply was possibly 1-2 months. Apparently some or all of the stool samples (mine included) that they collected are being sent to the CDC in Atlanta for further analysis. This is what is expected to take several weeks to complete.

Once the Health Department issues their final report, Disney said they would then conclude their investigation. They both told me a significant number of changes have been made in food handling and the Trek tour in order to eliminate any possibility of illness. I was impressed by how diligent that both of these organizations are in addressing this problem. As I mentioned in a previous post, I would not hesitate to go on a Wild Africa Trek tour and eat the food now based on the changes they have made.

When they notify me with any additional updates I'll be sure to pass them along here.

 

[DVCFans]

My family and I did the Wild Africa Trek on June 1st. I became extremely ill starting on June 4th. I had a high fever, abdominal cramping, vomiting, diarrhea, headache. I flew home on June 6th and was in urgent care on June 7th. My cultures came back as campylobacter which is a food borne bacteria. This was forwarded to our local health department and then on to Orange County Health Department. We also notified Disney. I have a case worker in guest claims and had to fill out a lengthy journal of our activities and food we ate for all 6 of us. I was also interviewed by the Orange County Health Department. When he interviewed me he told me that they were focusing on Animal Kingdom but did not say why. That was mid June and I have heard nothing from the health department since. I heard from guest claims this week and she said they were investigating the Animal Kingdom and to be patient. Her message said that this was being done in their food and safety department. I just happened to find this thread so of course have now read everything that is on the internet about it. Thought it was interesting that they said they had been unable to identify a pathogen as I had a positive culture. I missed 2 weeks of work and have never been so sick!

 

[rkdahl]

My family and I did the Wild Africa Trek on June 1st. I became extremely ill starting on June 4th. I had a high fever, abdominal cramping, vomiting, diarrhea, headache. I flew home on June 6th and was in urgent care on June 7th. My cultures came back as campylobacter which is a food borne bacteria. This was forwarded to our local health department and then on to Orange County Health Department. We also notified Disney. I have a case worker in guest claims and had to fill out a lengthy journal of our activities and food we ate for all 6 of us. I was also interviewed by the Orange County Health Department. When he interviewed me he told me that they were focusing on Animal Kingdom but did not say why. That was mid June and I have heard nothing from the health department since. I heard from guest claims this week and she said they were investigating the Animal Kingdom and to be patient. Her message said that this was being done in their food and safety department. I just happened to find this thread so of course have now read everything that is on the internet about it. Thought it was interesting that they said they had been unable to identify a pathogen as I had a positive culture. I missed 2 weeks of work and have never been so sick!

Well that is very interesting! So when you spoke to Orange County Health was it very clear to them what the results of your stool testing was? Or had that not come back yet? When they ran the tests on our 3 samples it came back with nothing positive. But the Fl Dept of Health in Jacksonville only tested for like 5 things (norovirus, e Coli, shigella, and I forgot the other 2). Our test samples along with others were being sent to the CDC for further analysis, hopefully they will test for the campylobacter virus.

My illness started about 34 hours after the tour. Sounds like yours might have been a bit longer. They say it can take from 24-72 hours based on the person.

Thanks so much for posting! It is interesting to read the experiences of others. So sorry you got sick! It was a very tough week for me and I was quite ill all week long, 7 days exactly!

Thanks!

 

[DVCFans]

The health department knew what the culture showed when I spoke with them . Disney has my health records as well. Campylobacter comes from raw chicken, unpasteurized milk etc. The incubation is 2-5 days I believe. I plan on calling Orange County next week now that I have read everything in the news.