An article appeared in your publication recently detailing the outbreak of the norovirus in our house that I felt warranted a response.
First of all, if you have ever been to our house the first thing you will notice is how beautiful and immaculate it is. Our staff takes great pride in their work, from our housekeeper to the chefs in our kitchen.
Our housekeeper has worked on this campus for over 17 years and is very meticulous in her work. The bathrooms are cleaned daily with bleach and she often scrubs the corners and floors with a toothbrush. You can smell the cleanliness throughout our house.
Our kitchen is inspected on a quarterly basis by the Alachua County Health Department, and has always received an excellent review. I would challenge anyone to question the way that our kitchen is run from the delivery, preparation and serving of our food. We have two chefs that are absolutely the very best and are constantly aware of making sure that their kitchen is clean and no contamination occurs.
Due to their meticulous preventative measures, the spread of the norovirus was in no way related to the preparation of our food.
Your article stated that the kitchen was given a "total cleandown." Once again I would like to say that we have one of the cleanest kitchens on campus and it receives a total "cleandown" every evening before the staff goes home.
You mentioned in your article that the virus could have come from food brought into the house. All food, besides fresh fruits and vegetables (which are washed before they are served), delivered to our house arrives in either vacuum-sealed packages or in boxes that have been sealed.
The outside vendors we use deliver to almost every single Gator Dining facility as well as other Greek houses here on campus. Food is not delivered or brought into our kitchen from any other sources.
The norovirus that hit our house could have been contracted anywhere. It is passed from person-to-person contact. We have many guests that eat at our house on a daily basis.
This virus could have been introduced into our house by any of these visitors and then passed along very quickly to our sisters.
Due to the quick response and cooperation of our membership, as well as our community, the virus was contained and did not spread.
