While many people opt to drink bottled water to avoid becoming sick from a local water supply, this is probably the first time norovirus has been found in bottled spring water.
On Monday, April 25, the Catalonia, Spain health department reported that 4,146 people in Barcelona and Tarragona became ill with vomiting, diarrhea, and fever, the symptoms of a “stomach bug” otherwise known as norovirus. Six of those affected required hospitalization, reports Fox News.
Albert Bosch, a microbiology professor at the University of Barcelona who was in charge of the analysis of the contaminated water, said it is highly unusual to find the virus in bottled water, saying, “It is the first time in the world that norovirus has been found in bottled water.”
“The way this usually happens with tap water is because somehow fecal water got mixed up with drinking water. But in this case we are talking of bottled water, there is a process and we don’t know at what point it happened,” he added.
The Eden Springs Bottled Water Company had to recall over 6,150 bottles of water that had been distributed to 925 companies in the region, out of an abundance of caution. The company reported the water had been bottled in Andorra, a small principality in the Pyrenees Mountains between Spain and France.
In theory, any kind of bacteria or virus could get into drinking water at its source, either from a sewage leak or with someone becoming ill and vomiting on or near the bottling equipment, said Benjamin Chapman, an associate professor and food safety specialist at North Carolina State University, who was not involved in the investigation.
Chapman says that because water is a good source of pathogens, “It’s important to conduct proper testing on water to look for potential pathogens and prevent outbreaks.”
Luckily, no one died in the norovirus outbreak and everyone has recovered. As Digital Journal reported in a story earlier today, there are over 700 million cases of norovirus annually around the world, creating an economic burden in excess of $60 billion each year.
