Luverne Subway Manager Shawn Byers prepares orders Tuesday with employees JoAnn Carrell and Shelly O'Neil.By Lori EhdeState and local Public Health officials are investigating a rash of stomach illnesses that appear to stem from food consumed at Subway in Luverne.Stool samples are being tested to confirm the origin of the illnesses, but a number of people who ate at Subway on Friday, Jan. 23, all came down with similar symptoms at the same time, roughly 18 hours later.The owner of Luverne’s Subway, Jim Dreyden, Sioux Falls, said the people didn’t get sick from eating at Subway."It was a stomach virus that was not traced to Subway," Dreyden told the Star Herald Tuesday. "…I’m not a doctor, but it’s not food poisoning. It’s a stomach virus."Bonnie Frederickson, director of Nobles Rock Public Health said there was good reason to investigate these illnesses."It appears a bunch of people all got ill at the same time, and that’s why the investigation is linking it to a food-borne exposure of some kind," Frederickson said.More than 20 people in the claims department of Continental Western Group Tri-State Region, Luverne, got sick the next day after eating Subway food during a lunch meeting on Jan. 23.Many had to cancel weekend plans and some missed work the following Monday.Including those numbers, 34 people so far who ate at Subway that day reported similar symptoms: vomiting, diarrhea and cramps."All these people meet case definition of a suspected viral illness," Frederickson.Tests on stool samples will tell whether the illness was viral in nature. Those results will not be ready, however, for another week."When this happens, we turn it in right away to headquarters and to public health," said Dreyden, who repeatedly denied the likelihood that Subway’s food was the source."What is strange is that some people ate there and didn’t get sick," he said. "Some employees got sick, and some did not."According to local health officials, Subway had not contacted the Department of Health when customers called to alert the business of possible food poisoning.Affected parties said Subway instead offered to make it right.Frederickson said her office didn’t hear of the illnesses until Jan. 27, and the call didn’t come from Subway.Public Health Sanitarian Jason Kloss said local Subway employees were accommodating when he contacted them."I visited with Subway last week, and the employees and manager have been wonderful to work with," Kloss said. "They’re very interested in implementing all the recommendations I had for them to minimize problems in the future."Manager Shawn Byers said hand-washing is one of the safety measures Kloss stressed most in this case, in addition to minimizing hand contact with ready-to-eat food.Kloss said the illnesses weren’t categorized as an "outbreak," and certainly didn’t warrant shutting down the restaurant for any length of time."We felt the problem was very contained," Kloss said. "The public can be assured there is no risk of further spread of illness."
