Very interesting. I hope this is investigated further, I've always wondered how often some of the swimming pools are cleaned or in fact if any chlorine is used in the pool. A thing to watch are any fresh water pools, this is great breeding ground for Giardia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giardia, you don't need to go to India to catch this parasite, you can get it in Scottish highlands and in N America backwaters. Birds and animals contaminate water (still) and this gets ingested.... very easy to catch and is one of the many types of 'Delhi Belly' you catch in India.

I wish some of these unscrupulous hotels/restaurants would admit for once that they have made a mistake.

Another minus for Goa!

Anyone for partially cooked tandoori kebabs/chicken...

That's got to be the third outbreak at the hotel this season.

John

John,

Have you any details on the timing of the other outbreaks?
I did hear one was early March 08?
Our entire landing , bar one, was unmovable for 2-3 days, I had 19 hrs of severe projectile vomit, the hotel doc (who stated that one cannot get salmonella from eggs on asked, maybe different chickens/eggs in India) and the first choice rep, just kept stating -its not the hotel. I also believe that the entire stewardess crew was also down for 3 days.
The timing of people being sick was like a military plan, all around us you could hear throwing up whilst you had the pleasure of doing it yourself!

I am in the early stages of litigation against First Choice.

What is it with Goa that brings all this sickness to tourists? I know people who have been to Thailand countless times and never been ill, maybe because the Buddhist culture place cleanliness high up on the list of priorities than India. Some of my relatives stay in the Gulf and never get ill with food.

Having been very ill in Goa which was food poisoning maybe they shouldn't be catering for package tours or tourists if they can't get food standards right. I have a suspicion it has to do with Chicken and Meat that has been either left around too long or undercooking (easy to do in a Tandoor).

Maybe it's to do with outsiders employed as chefs with poor hygene standards. I'm sure the basic Goan diet of rice and fresh fish doesn't give you 'DB'.

And..... I wish Goans/Indians would stop telling us it's 'DB' ..... it's FOOD POISONING!! It's nothing to do with the climate... it's bad food and preparation or unpure water.

I am afraid in this case its the pool, it turned green after the pump failed for two days, approx 40% of guests cames down at exact same time - projectile vomit and other end !
Gairdia does not usually induce projectile vomit, off to GP as still we are suffering

The main reason a pool turns green is because of algea caused by insufficient chlorination, circulation & filteration of the water. This can happen over a few days and may not be noticable but once algea takes over it multiplies rapidly and if not shocked with chlorine immediately will turn bright green to dark green. The hotel should not have allowed you in the pool if they knew they had a pump problem, it sounds like the maintenance staff wern't doing their job properly. The pool should be tested daily when there are lots of people using it, checking that the pump, filteration units are working sufficiently and water chlorination is at the correct level. There are lots of water borne germs that can make you very badly ill if a pool is poorly maintained, & never go in a pool if you cant see the bottom because the water is cloudy that can also cause skin & health problems.

There is also another reason why such illnesses spread very rapidly in holiday hotels too....

Holidaymakers still insist on going to sit around or swim in the pool when they are still unwell. They may be "on the mend" but carrying viral germs with them after having the holiday trots when they go into the pool, dining areas etc.

This is what happened just recently with the sickness outbreak in UK over winter. People were advised it was mainly a 24hr thing and to stay indoors until it was cleared but people still insisted on going to work, shopping etc, which led to it being spread into a bigger epidemic than was anticipated.

On a recent holiday to Malta, over half of the hotel were coughing and sneezing because the germs were being passed through the heating and A/C system and many people picked up the illness through travelling on a plane with people carrying the virus for 3hrs or so.

Food poisoning can affect just one person from one baine marie without infecting everyone else too. It doesn't necessarily mean the whole of the dish is affected. Poor temperature control is usually the cause of food poisoning and dishes like ice-cream are the worst for this.

I went to Goa a number of years ago and was sick twice during the 2 week holiday. The first week, we took the Golden Triangle tour along with about 40 other people. A number of us became sick but mostly for about 12hrs at a time - no longer than that. My husband didn't get sick and was with me the whole time. We both ate exactly the same dishes at each of the 4 hotels we stayed in. On the return journey home, I became very sick on the 2nd leg of the journey from Abu Dhabi and was constantly vomiting for almost 6hrs of the flight.

But, I found I became sick each time I had to take the large weekly malaria tablet. So there were a lot of factors to build into my illnesses.

I'm not saying it wasn't the hotels' fault - but that there can be a lot of contributing factors to illness whilst on holiday. Only a stool sample test will tell if you suffered from salmonella or guardia.

CwB

Apart from the pool situation which I totally agree as we had this in Langkawi once. The pool filter sprang a fault outside our room and despite me telling pool staff for days the problem was ignored and it became worse. First a little squirt then a fountain which they eventually took notice of. By this time guests were swimming, other peoples long hair was catching in between fingers... you could see bird poo floating on the top of the pool... I had a 'discussion' with the hotel manager which I had to stand firm in reception and informed them I WILL wait for as long as it takes... after all I another week to stand there. After he eventually showed his face and I told him to fix the pool otherwise his guests will get sick and will be unable to fly home and it WILL be his hotels responablity... he nodded in agreement and said as this is an isolated island we have to wait for parts from mainland Malaysia... it did get done. We lost pool facilities for a few days. Local guys, some in flip flops but most in and bare feet were brought in to dig a dirty big hole to find the offending leaking pipe. Parts were fitted. Managers stood back and watched with jugs of iced orange juice for themselves Grrr but nothing for the real workers... I couldn't sit back and watch so didn't let them go thirsty in the blazing sun.

In regards to food. If two people eat the same meal and one has a medical condition that comprises their immune system then that person may get sick, whilst the other remains unaffected. That is a fact and taught in all food handling courses.

In regards to Malaria medication, I took them on our very first trip to Bali. I took them for a few weeks prior to the trip , during the holiday by which time I was feeling very seedy towards the end... got home and continued to take as directed. I felt really ill then felt better...by which time it was time to take another dose then got sick again.
Not realising the cause... I went to the Dr. who sent me for Malaria blood tests... which was negative. It suddenly dawned on me that every time I took the pills I got sick!!
Nowadays, I cover up with a good tropical strength mozzie spray containing DEET.

Sorry for the lecture

Cheers Geri

cyprus100 wrote:

Food poisoning can affect just one person from one baine marie without infecting everyone else too. It doesn't necessarily mean the whole of the dish is affected. Poor temperature control is usually the cause of food poisoning and dishes like ice-cream are the worst for this.

It is also caused by at least another 100 factors, i am a food safety auditor and one of the owrst factors is people not washing their hands once they have visited the bathroom, - in some foods the bug cannot be cooked out properly (such as rice)....
There is sooo many causes of food poisoning... this can happen anywhere not just abroad .... in your own kitchens or barbecues!!!!
The pool problem could be numerous issues as well -

Good luck i hope you get this sorted!!!

Curlylocksm