How You Can Get Food Poisoning from Food You Didn’t Even Eat

Imagine a time when staring at a cake will make you fat, thinking about a delicate rosé will get you white-girl wasted, and simply uttering the phrase "space-vape mad astro-weed" will turn your afternoon into the sci-fi version of a Cheech & Chong holo-movie.

A 49-year-old Brit named Natalie Dye can probably imagine all of the above happening, and more.

That's because Dye was most definitely infected with norovirus after a friend of hers ate some infected oysters. To make this perfectly clear, Ms. Dye did not eat any oysters—but she got sick from them anyway.

Dye and friends celebrated their last night of a seaside vacation by going out to dinner at a restaurant known for its raw bar. She describes the night as follows: "Our friend Richard ordered a couple of oysters, a specialty of the restaurant. I bought one for my younger son, but he didn't fancy it. I am careful with anything raw or undercooked, because I hate being ill, so I didn't have one. Neither did my husband Gino or my other son."

Poor Richard, the oyster-eating friend, fell ill 24 hours later, exhibiting the lovely telltale signs of food poisoning: diarrhea and vomiting. Dye's moment of silent vindication was pretty damn short-lived, however. Two days later, she began to have similar symptoms herself.

"I was hot then cold, I ached all over, then I started vomiting uncontrollably. I was bedridden for two days and weak and ill for a week," Dye says. Could she have mysteriously succumbed to the same food poisoning that Richard had?

Yes, indeed. Dye explains, "My husband called the GP and we were amazed when he told us that Richard's oyster was almost certainly the cause." That's when it hit her: she had probably managed to catch the norovirus that had riddled her friend when she had taken care of him.

"I simply didn't realize his food poisoning was contagious."

Nor did we.

Apparently, norovirus is, in fact, contagious. A foodborne illness, norovirus can also be passed along from person to person. And you can catch it simply by interacting with somebody already infected.

It probably doesn't hurt that British oysters have gotten quite the bad food safety rap as of late. And rightly so. A two-year study conducted in 2011 by the UK's Food Standards Agency found that roughly 75 percent of all British-raised oysters contain norovirus. That's a lot of nasty oysters. According to the BBC, approximately one million people are believed to be affected by the virus each year.

University of Southampton microbiologist Dr. Ian Clarke explains that oysters are an extremely common source of foodborne illness, especially given that the virus is transmitted pretty easily: "It can start by one person eating a norovirus-contaminated oyster and then passing the virus on by person-to-person contact," notes the doctor.

So, like a stigmata, norovirus can seemingly appear out of nowhere. Lots of oysters, in Britain at least, carry norovirus. But oysters are so good.

And what conclusion should be drawn from this, at least in our opinion? Do not deny yourself the delights of the oyster if you're going to catch norovirus from those around you anyway.

Keep shucking, world.