UHS Doctors Treat Students For Possible Food Poisoning

Two Harvard undergraduates were hospitalized and 19 treated yesterday for gastro-intestinal disorders that may have been caused by food poisoning from Sunday brunch in the Houses, doctors at University Health Service said yesterday.

Dr. Sholem Postel, associate director of UHS, said yesterday that over 20 cases "is much more than what we would call sporadic gastro-enteritis [stomach inflammation] but this type of thing may come in waves, or viruses."

Students admitted to UHS Sunday night and yesterday morning were treated for food poisoning after they described their symptoms and said they attended brunch.

"Just because the incidence may be up doesn't necessarily exclude non-food origins," Postel said.

Department of Health

"If there are ever three or more cases of acute gastro-intestinal disease, then Harvard's Department of Health and Environmental Safety gets activated," he said.

The department will investigate the health records of the ill students, and see if all of them lived in college houses.

"The House distribution of the cases is wide and at least one to two are completely outside the system," Postel said.

Chandler S. Eaton, safety engineer to the UHS, said yesterday that a sanitarian will check all the House kitchens tomorrow to see if the illnesses are related to the meal served Sunday.

When the first students came in Sunday night and yesterday morning, "everybody was thinking of it as food poisoning, but it may just be a virus," Eaten said.

Students who complained to the UHS said they experienced nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, all symptoms of food poisoning.

Kitchen heads at Eliot, Winthrop and Leverett Houses, where some of the sick students ate Sunday, said yesterday they knew nothing about the possible food poisoning