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According to a public health official, public health clients Madison and Dane, who were sick before the restaurant closed their restaurant on Thursday, were infected with norovirus, a highly contagious disease.
The 23-year-old restaurant, located at 515 S. Park St., reopened Tuesday for lunch after being closed for four days.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that norovirus is responsible each year for 19 to 21 million diseases, 56,000 to 71,000 hospitalizations and 570 to 800 deaths.
The norovirus causes vomiting and diarrhea, and these are the symptoms described by Pam Hermoso after eating out on May 5th to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
Hermoso, 31, went to the restaurant with her husband and a friend that Sunday and started having a stomach ache the next day. She said she could not sleep Monday night or Tuesday night and she had to miss four days of work. Hermoso works at Nordstrom Rack at West Towne Mall.
She described "the worst" nausea, fever and constipation, and stated that she had no appetite for two days and was sick for a week. The doctor she consulted him diagnosed an infection in the stomach.
"I felt my stomach burn on the inside," she said. "I had never felt anything like it before."
Hermoso was the only one to have ordered enchiladas suizas or creamy chicken enchiladas. Her husband and friend did not get sick. She said that she was going to La Hacienda once every four to six weeks. Her husband has been going to the restaurant for about 10 years, she said.
The outbreak has sickened about 25 people who ate at the restaurant, said Doug Voegeli, director of environmental health at Public Health Madison and Dane County.
Voegeli said the number was approximate. The investigation being ongoing, he had not yet a precise figure, he said Monday.
He stated that the cause of the outbreak was a norovirus, but that he was unable to tell if anyone had been hospitalized.
The owner of La Hacienda, David Herrera, did not respond to voice messages or text messages on Monday or Tuesday.
Luis Soria, 56, ate at the restaurant on May 4th with his girlfriend and two days later, they were both badly sick. They ate three steak tacos and a chicken taco, he said.
He has not felt sick for more than 30 years, he said.
Soria said that he thought there were many more than 25 people who became ill. He and his girlfriend did not go to the hospital because they had no assurance, and he assumes that there are many others. who did not request medical treatment and who therefore were not considered in the estimation.
Neither Soria nor Hermoso knew the cause of their illness before reading the media reports. It was at that point that they assembled the pieces, and that's another reason for Soria to think that many other La Hacienda clients have not been accounted for in counting of health services.
"We do not know where we can complain," he said. "We did not go to the hospital because we were afraid to pay a lot of money.How many people think the same way?
According to the CDC, people infected with norovirus have direct contact with an infected person or consumption of contaminated food or water.
According to the Mayo Clinic, the virus is usually transmitted by contaminated food or water during preparation or on contaminated surfaces.
Voegeli said he did not remember for sure the last closing of a restaurant by the health service.
"Closures due to foodborne illness are very rare, but closures due to other health problems are rather systematic. In these cases, the closure can last from a few hours to a day, "he said.
Hermoso is just happy to feel like her again. "Thank goodness, I was able to get back to work yesterday," she said.
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