Mid-Autumn Festival gatherings with fake barbecue must prevent norovirus. Experts urge raw and cooked food to be separated and heated thoroughly

2026/09/26 11:47

When making fake barbecue during the Mid-Autumn Festival, you should pay attention to separate raw and cooked food, and the food must be cooked; diagram. (Picture taken from shutterstock)

[Reporter Luo Bi/Taipei Report] During the Mid-Autumn Festival, fake barbecues and dinner parties are frequent. If you experience vomiting or diarrhea after eating, don’t just treat it as eating too much. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 70 clusters of diarrhea have been reported across the country in the past four weeks, of which 28 were found to be pathogenic and 25 were found to contain norovirus, accounting for nearly 90% of the cases with detected pathogens. Yan Zonghai, director of the Clinical Poison Center of Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, reminded that norovirus is highly contagious. Meats and seafood should be thoroughly cooked when dining together, and raw and cooked food utensils should be separated.

According to monitoring by the CDC, in the 37th week, from September 13 to 19, there were 126,419 diarrheal outpatient and emergency visits, which was roughly the same as the 128,026 visits in the previous week. In the past four weeks, the catering, tourism and accommodation industry has reported the most diarrhea clusters; among the 28 cases of detected pathogens, in addition to 25 cases of norovirus, there were also 2 cases of Staphylococcus aureus and 1 case of Salmonella. In August, the norovirus typing results showed that GII.17 type accounted for the highest proportion, about 34.2%.

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Yan Zonghai said that norovirus only requires a small number of virus particles to cause disease and has strong transmissibility. Once spread at a dinner party, it may cause multiple people to suffer from acute gastroenteritis one after another. Common symptoms include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and watery diarrhea. Fever may also be present. If shellfish and other seafood are contaminated and eaten without sufficient heating, there is a risk of infection.

To reduce the risk of diarrhea after a dinner party, Yan Zonghai suggested that meat and seafood should be thoroughly cooked; cooking tables should be kept clean; knives, cutting boards and tongs used for handling raw food should not be used directly for cooked food to avoid cross-contamination. Baked food should also be eaten as soon as possible and avoid leaving it at room temperature for a long time.

CDC spokesperson Lin Mingcheng reminds people to wash hands properly with soap before preparing food, before eating and after using the toilet. People with symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea should avoid handling food and rest at home to reduce the chance of spreading the disease to relatives and friends.

Yan Zonghai pointed out that if many people have diarrhea or vomiting after a dinner party, they should pay attention to whether it is a cluster infection. Generally, adults should replenish fluids when symptoms occur; infants, young children, and the elderly need to pay more attention to dehydration or worsening of the condition. If symptoms are severe or unable to rehydrate normally, they should seek medical treatment as soon as possible.