And you thought getting a bullet in the eye-ball was bad?
Posted on 10/26/2004 7:04:56 PM PDT by kellynla
Oct. 26) -- Eyewitness News has learned that the illness that has plagued the Flamingo hotel and casino is the norovirus. We were the first to tell you about the spreading illness at the hotel. And Tuesday, the health district told us that they've had as many as 250 unconfirmed cases of norovirus -- most were Flamingo employees, and some were guests.
The Flamingo says they will fog all the 3,500 rooms in the hotel with an anti-viral chemical. They will also leave a letter in each room telling new guests about the situation.
Norovirus is spread by humans, after being picked up by fecal-oral contact. Washing hands after using the restroom is a critical preventive measure.
The hotel is aggressively cleaning the property and is using foggers to spray a sanitizer in the air to penetrate hard to clean surfaces.
(Oct. 25) evening -- The Clark County Health District says the norovirus may be what's caused dozens of people at the Flamingo hotel to get sick.
The health district is waiting for official lab results. But everything so far is pointing to the norovirus.
A source with the Flamingo hotel tells Eyewitness News that more than 100 people have reported not feeling well. They are still busy sanitizing the casino and the hotel.
The norovirus can live on a surface for several weeks.
(Oct. 25) morning -- Health officials may have identified what caused dozens of people to fall ill at the Flamingo hotel last week. A spokesman for the health district says it is operating under the hypothesis that it is the norovirus. Everything right now is pointing in that direction.
The health district, however, does not have lab results back yet. They expect those later today or tomorrow morning.
Over the weekend Eyewitness News visited the Harmon Medical Center where dozens of employees and guests have been going in search of relief.
The Flamingo says it is sanitizing slot machines, bathrooms, employee areas and guest rooms. In fact, Flamingo officials say they were overly cautious even before the health district got involved. They also have been notifying guests of the situation as soon as they check in.
A spokesman for the health district says this is not an outbreak of the flu. Again, they say everything is pointing in the direction of the norovirus.
The best thing you can do is wash your hands. The norovirus can live on a surface for up to four weeks.
The Flamingo is telling employees or guests who show symptoms of the illness to go to the Harmon Medical Clinic for testing and treatment. Test results are not expected until sometime this week.
This is similar to another incident at a downtown casino. In March, more than 1,500 people who either stayed at, or visited, the California hotel-casino downtown became ill with norovirus.
"...by fecal-oral contact..."
Must be a Muslimn ailment.
There are 27 million cases of norovirus every year in the USA. It's the second most common contagion after the common cold. The result is just a 48-72 hour flu with vomiting and so on. Anyway I think people overreact when they hear about this thing, which is so common in schools and cruise ships and just about everywhere really.
As the previous person said, wash your hands, that's mostly what stops it from spreading.
Some of my co-workers were at the NACS/PEI convention in Vegas recently, and quite a few people attending convention got sick from this.
None of my colleagues, though. They were in another hotel.
C'mon you guys, you know very well it is President Bush's fault for not scrubbing the walls properly and keeping tabs on everyone to be sure they washed their hands. St. Edwards will heal them all the day after they are elected.
Wow, I never got sick when I was there. Didn't even lose money. Actually walked out ahead, and not sick. Go go figure.
It's just the illegal aliens doing the infecting of novovirus of guests that American workers are too lazy to do.
Also, it's very important to not put your hands near your nose or mouth. Particulary if you've been handling coins or green backs.
actually, its President Bush's south of the border buddies fault for not scrubbing the walls properly and not washing their hands...
I laugh at those "Employees Must Wash Hands' signs in rest rooms.
This is like expecting Stop Signs to actually stop cars. Since many people (not typing canines) these days seem to have difficulty in obeying "the rules" of good public behavior, perhaps Employee Identification Cards with electronic doohickeys or thingamajigs (hey, I'm a dog) that log whether an employee has actually put his hands under running water in the sink (not the toilet, see previous parenthetical aside) could be developed and installed.
Nanny State, rather that Fanny State. (Hey, couldn't resist that one)
And you thought getting a bullet in the eye-ball was bad?
Please forgive typos. Dewclaws need clipping.
There is probably tons of folks who never wash their hands
before or after using the restrooms, especially in Vegas.
But this always can happen with large groups of people
congregating...
My guess is that if feces were fluorescent, you wouldn't need
lights in Vegas.
Eeeewwwwwww, just lost my appetite for breakfast.
Don't shake hands with a Democrat!
I always figured (at least with the cruise ships) that they were picking up bad water (cheap) in various Central American ports, rather than run the desalinization setups they have on board (expensive). I laughed at the freepers that were trying to tie it to some middle eastern conspiracy; obviously they've never drank the water south of the board
No, nothing to do with bad water from central america, haha.
27 million cases a year in the USA alone. Far more than that for the whole world of course. You get passengers who don't wash their hands strolling on the ship, already sick. Norovirus is extremely contagious (if you don't wash your hands), and soon most everyone on the ship gets it. The ships ability to stop it is really limited, because they can't stop sick passengers from boarding and spreading the thing. They can confine them to their cabin once they know they are sick, but by then it is too late and it has spread wildly. It doesn't matter how clean and diligent a ship is, a few sick passengers stroll on and most everyone is going to get sick. Luckily as I said it's only a 48-72 hour flu, could be worse.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.