Outside intrusion hard to stomach at Back Bay club
By Thomas Caywood
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Boston public health officials are probing an intestinal parasite outbreak at a swanky Back Bay private club.
A handful of people attending a dinner lecture at the exclusive Chilton Club on Commonwealth Avenue in April were infected with cyclospora, a nasty bug that causes severe diarrhea, cramping and vomiting. Cyclospora is spread when people eat food or drink water that has come in contact with infected feces.
The Boston Public Health Commission found out about the outbreak in May and has been tracking down all the club members and guests who attended the dinner lecture to determine exactly how many got sick, spokesman Tom Lyons said.
``We believe this is a food borne illness at this point,'' Lyons said. ``Produce and berries can sometimes be the way people get this infection.''
The tony Chilton Club, named for Mayflower passenger Mary Chilton, is a stop on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail. The club was founded in 1910 by a group of women who chafed at the restrictions placed on women by the exclusive men's clubs of the day, according to the trail's Web site.
General manager Robert Wood couldn't be reached for comment yesterday. A person familiar with the situation said more than a dozen club members, guests and employees got sick.
Lyons said the number of cyclospora cases nationally has been increasing, but such outbreaks remain rare in the United States. He said there's no risk to the general public and likely no longer any risk to club members.
``We haven't completely locked down what the source was, but we believe the source was food mostly because everyone that was ill came from that one event,'' Lyons said.
