Dozens Ill After Attending South Jersey Wedding, Cause Of Illness Under Investigation

by David Madden

OCEAN CITY, NJ (CBS) -- Word from down the shore is that several people, who attended a wedding a couple weeks ago, got sick after the event. The Cape May County Health Department is looking into it.

There is no cause for public alarm.

Kevin Thomas with the Health Department says they got a phone call after the April 30th wedding at the Flanders Hotel in Ocean City.

"42 people out of 150 did get sick and it looks to be an illness that lasted 3 days," he told KYW Newsradio.

As a matter of protocol, an inspector was sent to the hotel to check things out. "We did not find anybody who was sick on their staff," Thomas said, "and they did a pretty good job in their evaluation from handling food."

The mother of the bride is quoted in local media as calling the illness a "flukey thing" and insisting she'd hold another wedding there.

So what happened? That's still unclear.

Health officials are checking with people who attended the wedding, and there are suggestions that a guest might have brought a virus to the function and it spread quickly.

The state health department has also been apprised of the situation.