The dining room at Arrowhead Golf Club is open again after about 125 customers and employees fell ill to a stomach virus.

The restaurant reopened at 4 p.m. Friday, June 27 — an hour shy of one week after Wheaton Park District officials learned of the illnesses and voluntarily closed the dining room and grill.

The decision to open was made June 25 after the DuPage County Health Department determined that there was no longer a threat of illness.

“We haven’t had any new reports of illness, so things have pretty much stabilized,” said Sue Kowalczyk, food safety program director for the county.

The illness was traced to a strand of norovirus, a family of common viral strain that causes flu-like symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

For the most part, those stricken were incapacitated for a short period of time, Kowalczyk said.

“We did have one person who did need to seek emergency room treatment for dehydration, but no large numbers of people (sought) medical treatment,” she said. “It doesn’t tend to be too serious, not for a long time.”

Unlike salmonella or other food-borne pathogens, norovirus is spread from person to person, meaning it was likely an individual who introduced it to the golf club on Butterfield Road.

But that also makes tracing the source of the norovirus difficult.

“We still haven’t identified a definite source, and we may not,” Kowalczyk said.
During the trend of illness, Wheaton Park District officials were focused on containing the spread of illness while ensuring no events were canceled or disrupted.

In addition to the dining room, Arrowhead operates a banquet service that hosts events such as wedding receptions.

Those events all ran on schedule last week, said Wheaton Park District Executive Director Mike Benard, though Arrowhead had to rely on outside catering companies to provide food.

Now that the norovirus threat has subsided, Benard said Arrowhead officials are looking to bounce back and restore any customer confidence they might have lost.

Last week all employees at the golf club went through a training session re-emphasizing healthy practices, which Benard said would be an extra “lines of defense” against another outbreak.

But, he acknowledged, it would be impossible to ensure 100 percent protection from another norovirus, which Kowalczyk said are relatively common. The strain is responsible for at least half of gastroenteritis outbreaks, the County Health Department reported, and studies have found that 60 percent of Americans are exposed to one or more norovirus by the age of 50.

“Normal precaution is not bleaching every square inch of the place three times a day,” Benard said. “(That) would be prohibitive.”

Benard said last week, just hours before reopening, that he was confident business in the dining room wouldn’t suffer, in part because it has a loyal clientele.

The area he is concerned about, however, is banquet events.

Customers might be weary of taking any chances when planning a wedding reception or important business lunch, he noted. As of Friday afternoon, three events in June had been called off with customers citing the illnesses.

“I certainly understand, having gotten married four years ago, the level of thought and preparation and planning and anxiety that goes into one of these events,” Benard said.

But he recalled the feeling he had flying a few days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He said with the added safety precautions and heightened alert, he never felt safer to be in the air — and he hopes the same is true for those dining at Arrowhead.

“I’ll respect anyone’s decision to do what’s best, but there’s no reason to cancel at this point,” he said.