Source of sickness among hotel guests remains mystery
By Scott Neil
The source of a sickness that affected 51 guests including some attending an international doctors’ conference at the Fairmont Southampton Hotel has still not been found.
But a number of those struck down have ruled out the possibility the mystery illness was caused by dining out at restaurants elsewhere on the Island because they claiming they remained at the hotel the whole time.
Health officials and the Fairmont’s management are continuing to conduct tests to find the source of the illnesses that caused so many guests to be taken ill with some needing to go to hospital by ambulance during the weekend.
Although the source of the sickness is not yet confirmed suspicion has fallen on what guests may have eaten after an initial claim that it was a food-related illness that had given people stomach cramps and diarrhoea.
Sue Nielson, organiser of the Ninth International Conference on Mechanisms and Treatment of Neuropathic Pain, which brought around 300 delegates from around the world to the hotel for three days, was amongst those taken sick.
She is now back at the University of Rochester in New York and said the illness that befell a number of conference delegates had affected the attendance at the dinner programmes, and all seven of her own group suffered sickness with the worst symptoms coming in the first 12 hours of feeling unwell.
“We have our director still in Bermuda and he’s hoping to get some information about what the cause was,” she said. “This is something that can happen anywhere.”
Dr. Rachel Duan, of Plymouth, Michigan, was another conference delegates taken ill. She said: “On Saturday night I became ill as did a number of my colleagues. Most of us did not eat anywhere other than at the hotel because it was such an intensive conference.
“When I got sick I reported it to the hotel because it was after lunch. The next morning when I met my supervisor he was very sick and several of our colleagues from New York had to go to hospital with intravenous medication.”
Dr. Duan said she had met another hotel guest on the Sunday who was not part of the conference but had also become sick. On her Continental Airlines flight from Bermuda to Newark Airport she said another passenger who had been to the conference was taken ill.
As reported in the Royal Gazette <$>earlier this week an Air Canada flight from Bermuda was put under a temporary quarantine when it landed at Toronto on Sunday afternoon after a number of passengers who had attended the conference at the hotel were seriously ill during the flight.
John and Cindy Wren stayed at the Fairmont Southampton with another couple but did not attend the doctors’ conference. The two men did not have any sickness the women did. After comparing what they had eaten the only difference was that the women had eaten Caesar salad at the hotel and the men didn’t.
A spokeswoman for the hotel said the theory that the illness is food-related has not been confirmed, but checks are being carried out in a number of areas.
Norman Mastalir, Managing Director of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Bermuda, said: “We continue to take very seriously the sickness of our guests over the weekend.
“We’re working closely with the health department, which is now in the process of testing samples from the people who were ill.
“We’re testing the water and upholding the highest standards of hygiene and culinary safety at the hotel.
“Unfortunately we have yet to identify the cause of the illness; however, we will persist in working closely with the health department.”
