By: Steve Dellar | 02-16-2018 | News
Photo credit: Alexey Novikov | Dreamstime.com

Winter Olympics - Norovirus Hits Athletes

As we’ve told your earlier, more than 190 people have already been affected in the Olympic village by the outbreak of the highly contagious norovirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea.

And now, two Swiss athletes at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea have become the first competitors to be hit by it as well.

Related coverage: <a href="https://thegoldwater.com/news/18218-Winter-Olympics-Organizers-Confirm-177-Norovirus-Cases-at-Pyeongchang#18222"> Winter Olympics Organizers Confirm 177 Norovirus Cases At Pyeongchang</a>.

The Swiss organization admitted that freestyle skiers Fabian Boesch and Elias Ambuehl were taken away from the rest of the team after being diagnosed.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Two Swiss Olympic athletes contracted norovirus. They were sequestered in private rooms and were not staying at the Olympic Village. <a href="https://t.co/TGSIcGTpn6">https://t.co/TGSIcGTpn6</a></p>&mdash; The New York Times (@nytimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/964447040901124096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Noroviruses are a group of viruses that cause acute gastroenteritis, or inflammation of the stomach, intestines or both.

Dr. Aron Hall, who works for the Centers of Disease Control’s (CDC) Division of Viral Diseases states that: “Anyone serving or preparing food while they’re sick has the opportunity to expose many people, and that’s very often how we see these foodborne outbreaks occur.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Norovirus breaks out at Winter Olympics <a href="https://t.co/w8Cs4pgzpm">https://t.co/w8Cs4pgzpm</a></p>&mdash; Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) <a href="https://twitter.com/MailOnline/status/964415196788809729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2018</a></blockquote>

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"Wintertime is the peak of norovirus activity."

"We typically see increased numbers of hospitalizations as well as outbreaks during this time of year.”

As the first full week of competition at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang is now complete, authorities continue to battle the disease as the number of cases continues to rise.

So far, there have been a staggering total of 194 confirmed cases of norovirus according to the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG).

Of those 194 cases, some 47 patients remain in quarantine whilst 147 have been released.

Source:

https://nos.nl/pyeongchang2018/artikel/2217522-zwitserse-freestyleskiers-besmet-met-norovirus.html

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1 Comment/s
Anonymous No. 18561 2018-02-16 : 17:50

I just hope that Norovirus is the worst thing that comes out of an Olympic games with a known country that killed his brother with a chemical agent.

I see NK coming in at the last minute as suspect at least.

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