Lake Forest Place virus on the wane as dozens are treated

• Reprints

Updated: February 27, 2012 8:09AM

The outbreak of norovirus at Lake Forest Place is on the wane, officials said Monday, though dozens are still trying to recover from its effects.

The Lake Forest continuing care retirement community reported it was treating 86 individuals — 50 staff members and 36 residents — on Monday afternoon for the highly contagious virus, up from the initial outbreak of 50 first reported to the Illinois Department of Health over the Jan. 14-15 weekend.

There were no deaths “directly attributable to the norovirus,” Lake Forest Place Medical Director Dr. Peter Jaggard said.

“The last 50 of the 86 cases shifted to the staff acquiring” the virus, Jaggard said, likely from airborne viruses or during clean up of vomit and diarrhea.

“We’re well past the peak,” Jaggard said. Since Jan. 18, the numbers of new cases have “dropped dramatically,” he said, from 16 on Jan. 18 down to three on Jan. 22.

Anyone on staff or in residence at the facility who exhibited any gastrointestinal symptoms, such as diarrhea or vomiting, was being treated for norovirus, Jaggard said, though not all of the new cases were tested and confirmed as norovirus.

“We’re erring on the side of caution,” he said.

The outbreak began Saturday, Jan. 14, with residents who live in the independent living area of the facility “our very mobile, older adults. It didn’t start in our health care center. It started out in the population” and was brought into Lake Forest Place, Jaggard said, but could not say from where.

The Lake County Health Department has received other reports of norovirus in the county but would not identify the institutions involved without the submission of a Freedom of Information Act request, according to Leslie Piotrowski, the spokesperson for the Lake County Health Department.

“There are outbreaks at other facilities in Lake County” that members of the communicable disease staff are treating, Piotrowski confirmed Monday.

“The outbreak is not over yet, but is now on the decline,” she added.

Taking no chances

Lake Forest Place will continue to hold off on new admissions through this week and possibly into next week.

“We will wait until the facility is free of cases for five to seven days,” Jaggard said. “There’s no reason to take any chances.”

New admissions typically are transferred from hospitals to Lake Forest Place for rehabilitative care.

“We’re taking all precautions necessary and following IDPH guidelines,” Lake Forest Place spokesperson Carolyn Staven said at the start of the outbreak last week.

Those precautions include signs warning visitors of an illness outbreak and the offering of hand sanitizer as well as requiring staff involved with patient care and clean up to wear gloves and face masks.

Infected employees have been told to stay home between 48 and 72 hours after the flu-like symptoms abate.

Lake Forest Place residents who have exhibited the severe diarrhea, abdominal pain and vomiting are in isolation and, like the employees, will remain there from 48 to 72 hours after their symptoms stop. The highly contagious virus, which cannot be treated by antibiotics, is common in such closed quarters as hospitals, nursing homes and cruise shops, according to the Mayo Clinic website. www.mayoclinic.com.

“We’re pushing fluids in a healthy person and for some older (patients) are sometimes putting them on an IV for hydration,” Staven said.

Lake Forest Place, which opened in 1998, has 440 residents and 250 employees.

Nearby Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital and Westmoreland, its long-term health care facility, do not have the virus, hospital spokesperson Jane Griffin said.