Maitland, Fla. (CBS TAMPA) – At least 55 people became violently ill and about 25 were sent to the hospital after a holiday office party in Maitland.
Orange County Fire Rescue officials responded to the Maitland office complex after at least 55 people became violently ill around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, just hours after eating food catered to the company, WESH-TV reports. About 25 people were transported to hospitals in Orange and Seminole counties for food-poisoning type ailments.
“Some of them passed out,” employee Lizette Romero told WESH. “Because they threw up so much they just passed out.”
Officials did not release the name of the caterer that brought food to the company around 12:30 p.m., which infectious disease experts told Fox News likely had been contaminated with a staph infection or an uncovered lesion due to the quickness in which the illnesses erupted after the employee meal.
The FBI and Homeland Security were notified of the incident as a precaution, officials told WESH.
“It’s a pretty big outbreak to have so many people become sick in one location,” Dain Weister, spokesman for the Florida Department of Health, told the Orlando Sentinel. “It’s not too often that we have so many people sick.”
Weister added that the investigation will take weeks.
Mark Wechsler, assistant medical director for area counties, said the incident was indicative of a “breakdown in a policy of cleanliness,” and that incident was categorized as a “mass-causality incident” due to the large number of those who became violently ill.
