[S]ixty-seven individuals associated with the Wake Robin retirement community in Shelburne have reported symptoms consistent with the gastrointestinal illness shigellosis.
The Vermont Department of Health is investigating the outbreak, the department announced Oct. 23. Twenty-two of the sick individuals have tested positive for the illness.
Symptoms include fever, stomach cramps and diarrhea, which can sometimes be bloody. The disease spreads through fecal-oral transmission but can also spread through contact with a contaminated object, sexual contact or ingesting contaminated food or water, the Department of Health said.
The illness generally resolves in five to seven days but can last for a month or longer. The Department of Health said strict attention to hygiene limits the spread, and those with confirmed cases of the disease who work in health care, child care or food handling should stay away from work until two consecutive negative stool samples have been collected.
Mark Levine, the health department’s commissioner, said that the community should not be overly alarmed by the outbreak since it only spreads through interaction with an infected person or contaminated object.
“Generally we don’t see this spread through an entire community, like the flu,” he said.
Ken Liatsos, a publicist for Wake Robin, said the retirement community contacted the Department of Health and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as soon as it became aware of the outbreak.
Wake Robin is collecting data to pinpoint the source of the outbreak, and has closed the group dining hall until the outbreak has subsided. The staff is under strict sanitation protocols, Liatsos said, and the health center is closed to visitors.
“Wake Robin is taking some pretty aggressive measures to try to control this outbreak and prevent it from happening again,” said Liatsos, who works for People Making Good Public Relations.
Additionally, all events have been cancelled and appropriate staff are being tested.
Residents have been getting frequent updates on the situation in their mailboxes from Wake Robin staff, Liatsos said.
Levine said that Wake Robin’s response has been “very good” and that the retirement community has been following the department’s instructions on addressing the issue.
“Right now, there doesn’t look to be any major policy issue there or procedural issue there that would have allowed this to happen when it wouldn’t have happened anywhere,” he said.
The CDC is helping identifying the source of the outbreak, and Levine said he was optimistic that the source is close to being identified.
Levine said the first symptoms were reported around Oct. 10, and the department started receiving a significant number of reports Oct. 15. The Department of Health then invited the CDC to get involved Oct. 23 as the department was concerned that the illness was drug-resistant.
Levine said in other cases across the country the illness has been drug-resistant and that some of the samples in this case showed that it was drug-resistant here. But only a small portion of those who contract the disease need antibiotics.
“The good news is, most people don’t need an antibiotic when they get this, since the illness is self-limited,” he said.
The CDC is wrapping up its involvement, Levine said, which they would not be doing if the community was at risk. While there are still cases being reported, only one or two are being reported each day, compared to the 10 to 15 a day at the height of the outbreak.
Earlier this year, a 70-year-old woman, Betty Miller, pleaded guilty to making the deadly poison ricin and testing it on neighbors at Wake Robin. At least one resident of the nursing home whom Miller tested the poison on fell ill, according to court records.
Miller had made the ricin from castor beans she had grown at the affluent retirement community, according to court records.
Liatsos said the current outbreak has nothing to do with the ricin incident.
“They’re totally separate, completely unrelated and different incidents, and they’re the kinds of things that could happen in any community of people,” he said. “We’re always concerned with the well-being of the residents, and that’s what Wake Robin is all about.”
