SANA MAHMOOD

LONDON: Some thirty athletes and other members of their teams staying at Tower Hotel (near Tower Bridge) have been infected in an outbreak of norovirus here during IAAF World Championships being held here.

Due to acute gastroenteritis caused by the norovirus a number of competitors were stopped from participate in events.

According to the reports those athletes and supporting staff – who were infected – hail from Botswana, Canada, Germany, Ireland and Puerto Rico.

Experts, verifying that infections were caused by norovirus (following lab tests), warned that the virus can live outside the body for a number of days. Hence anybody cured could still spread the disease.   

As an effort of managing the crisis Tower Hotel management negated that the outbreak was not source of outbreak:  “We have worked collaboratively with the EHO [environmental health officer] and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to investigate the origins of the illness and can confirm that the hotel was not the source”.

Ireland’s Thomas Barr was forced to withdraw from the 200m hurdles semi-final on Monday night. More than seven Canadians were affected.

Botswana’s Isaac Makwala, who had to withdraw from the 200m heats on Monday after vomiting in the stadium medical room. On Tuesday evening he missed the 400m sprint.

(Though Onkabetse Nkobolo, another 400m sprinter from Botswana, was also affected, but he had recovered quickly and was back in training on Tuesday 8th of August.)