Boston College: 80 sickened after eating at Chipotle, including men’s

The stock dropped 2.9% on December 8 alone in the wake of a report from Boston College officials that 80 out of 80 students who have what appears to be norovirus reported eating at Chipotle before becoming sick.

Credit: Lakewood Mag.”All 80 students have confirmed that they ate at the Chipotle Restaurant in Cleveland Circle during the weekend”, Boston College said in a statement.

In a fresh blow for Chipotle Mexican Grill, which was recently in the news for the E. coli outbreak that spread across its outlets located in nine states, more reports of people calling in sick after dining at Chipotle have surfaced.

Mere weeks after Chipotle has cleaned up the mess that followed a massive E. coli outbreak that sickened customers in six states, more bouts of illness have been reported.

“The pattern here looks like norovirus isolated to one restaurant”, Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold said. That location has since been temporarily closed for further investigation. “If there is a question of illness, we want to make sure the establishment will properly manage it so there will not be a thing”, Boston Inspectional Services Commissioner William Christopher Jr. said.

Symptoms of both illnesses are similar – diarrhea, stomach cramps and fever. The states with reported cases are Washington, Oregon, Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania, California, Minnesota, New York and Ohio.E. coli are bacteria commonly found in the intestines of humans and animals, some strains of which can cause severe food poisoning.

Officials from the Boston and Massachusetts Health Departments are investigating the incident and looking to see if E.coli or another pathogen is to blame. The Boston Public Health Commission reported 65 known cases.

To prevent food-borne illness from striking in the future, Chipotle is enhancing its food safety measures, using DNA-based tests, end-of-shelf-life testing and additional internal training. That would mark the first decline since the company went public in 2006.

Chipotle’s shares, which closed down 1.7 percent at $542.24, moved marginally higher in extended trading on the norovirus test results. The stock is down more than 20 percent since mid-October.