zeek the geek

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College football players sick with food poisoning transmitted the virus to the opposing team on the gridiron in the first documented case of its kind in sports. The Duke University team started vomiting in the locker room and on the sidelines during the Sept. 19,1998 game against Florida State. Duke lost the game 62-13, but got their revenge when the virus crossed the line of scrimmage. The only contact between the 2 teams was on the playing field. The virus was passed by people touching each other’s contaminated hands, uniforms and the football. Game films showed ill Duke players with vomit on their jerseys colliding with Florida State players on the field, and Duke players wiping their mouthpieces on their hands, then touching opponents’ faces and later shaking their hands. Many players and staff were ill by game time, approximately one day after eating turkey sandwiches in a box lunch, from a deli that were prepared by an ill or infected food preparer. By the middle of the second quarter, several players, including three of the defensive starters were on IVs in the locker room. 43 of the Duke players and staff who ate the turkey, or 62% got ill. They transmitted it to 11 other Duke personnel who had not eaten the sandwiches and to 11 Florida State players on the Offensive line. All ill players on the Duke Team and Florida State team, and the food preparer had the same genotype I NV strain, which is rare in the U.S., and more commonly found in Europe.

NV crossed the line of scrimmage

• Transferred via football & player’s hands
• 11 FSU players became sick
• 1st documented case of person-to-person transmission of NV at sports event