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player ready...Public health officials are trying to determine the source of a bacterial infection that has been contracted by eight people living in the stable area of Arlington International Racecourse.
None of the people infected has had to be hospitalized, and the infection is hardly ever fatal, said officials with the Cook County Department of Public Health.
The infection, a form of dysentery known as Shigellosis or Shigella, can cause fever, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, health officials said.
The disease has been detected only among people living in the stable area of the racetrack, known as the backstretch, and poses no risk to track patrons, county health officials said.
Among the 60 people who have been tested so far to see if they have the infection, eight cases, including at least four children, have been confirmed, according to the health department. Test results still are pending for 14 people, the department said.
About 1,500 people work on the backstretch, and about 500 of them live there, track officials said.
The last confirmed case among residents of the backstretch was reported to the county health department on Sept. 8. The first case among the same group was diagnosed at Northwest Community Hospital, Arlington Heights, on Aug. 27.
Tom Oas, director of the Arlington Heights Health Services Department, said the bacteria is carried in human feces and can be spread through poor hygiene habits.
County health officials said the infection also could be spread by insects or through contaminated water.
Arlington Heights and county health officials have been telling the backstretch workers that washing one’s hands after using the bathroom or after changing a baby’s diaper is the best way to stop the spread, Oas said.
In addition, the water on the backstretch was tested on Monday, but the results are not in yet, said Caryn Stancik, spokeswoman for the county health department.
However, Stancik said the infected people were found in only one or two buildings on the backstretch. The backstretch has at least three large dormitories and some smaller ones.
Robert Bork, vice president and general manager of the racetrack, said the water on the backstretch is tested monthly and is fine. He said the infection was linked to only one bathroom in the backstretch, which he said has 50 to 60 bathrooms. He said this was proof that the water was not involved.
The backstretch is served by well water and has been since 1927, Bork said. The grandstand has been served by the Lake Michigan water pipeline since it was rebuilt following the 1985 fire at the racetrack, Bork said.
Both Bork and health officials said the backstretch workers, who are employed by horse trainers and not by the track, do not work in any of the food service operations in the grandstand or even in the commissary that serves the backstretch.
Backstretch workers said Thursday that they have been buying bottled water because they don’t trust the well water. “When you see people suffer with stomach cramps, it convinces you to buy your water to be safe,” said Maximo Atempa, 32, who has groomed horses for six years and said he earns about $145 a week.
Other backstretch workers speculated that the outbreak may have been caused by what they said were the unsanitary communal bathrooms.
They said residents often washed dishes in the bathroom sinks, which sometimes clogged up the sinks and left standing water in them for days.
Oas, of Arlington Heights Health Services, said the sinks had not been clogged up in the last week or so since health workers started visiting there.
Most of the bathrooms on the backstretch are communal and are used by up to 120 people, workers there said Thursday.
Since the outbreak, Bork said the bathrooms have been disinfected every day and cleaned several times a day.
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Backstretch residents said several dozen people, mostly children, have fallen sick in the last two months, and some have been taking home remedies, such as herbal teas. Hospital spokeswoman Angela Stefaniu said four of the confirmed cases were children ages 2 or younger.
Stancik said the source of the infection may never be determined.
“I think the way to look at this is that there’s eight cases out of thousands of people back there,” Bork said. “It’s like a small community lives and works back there. This is the type of thing that could happen anywhere.”