Medic takes more than a dozen neighbors to the hospital from east Charlotte apartments

More than a dozen people at one Charlotte apartment complex got sick with gastrointestinal and other symptoms Sunday afternoon, according to tweets from Medic.

Fifteen people were taken to the hospital from the Forest Hills apartment complex in east Charlotte, Medic said. One person was seriously ill, but Medic said the cases don't seem to be life-threatening.

The 911 calls started coming in around 4:45 p.m. Sunday, Medic said, and by 6 p.m., a mass casualty bus was on its way to the neighborhood. EMTs canvassed the area to find out whether more people were sick, Medic said.

First responders tried to figure out what the sick people had in common and learned they may have attended the same event in the neighborhood Saturday night, Medic said.

On Monday, Mecklenburg County released advice for people who attended the event, which was a neighborhood birthday party at Four Winds Apartments, in the same area as the 911 calls.

The county's Environmental Health office is interested in collecting leftover food from the party, the county said. Anyone with food should keep it refrigerated and call 980-314-1660 to have it collected.

People should also avoid eating food from the party and follow normal disease prevention practices like washing hands, county officials said.

The county recommended that anyone experiencing diarrhea, fever, nausea, vomiting or stomach cramps seek medical attention.

The illness outbreak may be particularly affecting Charlotte's Nepalese community. Four of the first five 911 callers Sunday night requested Nepali translators, Medic said.

The apartments dealing with the illness are near the intersection of Albemarle Road and East W.T. Harris Boulevard.

This story was originally published July 1, 2018 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Medic takes more than a dozen neighbors to the hospital from east Charlotte apartments."