n e w s m a k e r s : The Football Virus

by Cate House

ure, football players expect a little suffering after a big game. But gastroenteritis?

During a game between Florida State University (FSU) and Duke University on September 19, 1998, several FSU players contracted a Norwalk-like virus from their opponents, who had been suffering from gastroenteritis. Christine Moe, assistant professor of epidemiology, traced the source of the outbreak to two Durham restaurant employees who had the virus at the time and had prepared turkey sandwiches for the Duke players.

Moe's laboratory, which often assists the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services with outbreak investigations, tested stool specimens using a technique known as reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, followed by a DNA sequence analysis. This provided an exact fingerprint of the virus, allowing investigators to determine that the FSU players got ill from the same virus as the Duke players.

"To our knowledge, this is the first report of transmission of a Norwalk-like virus through a contact sport," Moe says. She explains that these viruses are usually food or water borne, but that the only contact between the two teams was on the playing field. "The virus must have been passed by the players touching each other's contaminated hands, uniforms, or maybe the football."

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