More Sick Andrew Students Following Prom: School

TINLEY PARK, IL — Cook County health officials are working on getting lab work to determine if norovirus is the reason more than 100 Andrew High School students became sick with flu-like symptoms about a day after attending the school's prom Friday at Shedd Aquarium. The number of sick students reported to the school increased from 90 to 111, according to Consolidated High School District 230. About 400 students attended the prom.

According to parents on two Tinley Park community Facebook pages, students began getting sick Saturday, April 28, and into Sunday, April 29, after going to prom Friday, April 27. Students who became ill suffered from fever, chills and vomiting, parents said.

Parents and an Andrew student also posted updates over the weekend that doctors had diagnosed some of the sick students with norovirus. But Kimberley Conrad Junius, a spokeswoman with the Cook County Department of Public Health, said her agency hasn't determined that the virus is behind the

"The illnesses are still under active investigation," she told Patch on Tuesday. "At present it seems consistent norovirus, but we don't have laboratory result to confirm it at this point. We are working on that."

RELATED: Illness Outbreak Hits 90 Andrew High School Students Post-Prom

People contracting norovirus can suffer stomach-related symptoms that develop between 12 to 48 hours after exposure, according to the website for the Centers for Disease Control. Contaminated food and person-to-person contact can spread the virus, and most people begin getting better within one to three days, the agency said.

County health officials have been working with the Chicago Department of Public Health, as well as the school, the aquarium and Sodexo, which provided food at the prom, as part of the investigation, Conrad Junius said. One thing investigators want to do is determine what other activities students participated in other than prom before they got sick, she said.

"We are planning to administer a questionnaire to students regarding where they were in the days leading up to prom," she added. "We will share more information when it becomes available."

Although officials are still searching for answers as to why the students became sick, Conrad Junius said the matter does illustrate the importance of washing hands with soap and water and other preventative measures to avoid contracting illnesses, such as norovirus.

Go to the website for the Centers for Disease Control for more information about norovirus and what steps can be taken to prevent it.

Photo via Patch archive