Virus sickens Toronto students on school trip to OTTAWA

03.jun.11
Ottawa Citizen
Pauline Tam 


OTTAWA -- Twenty-four students and three adults visiting Ottawa from the Toronto area are sick with what public-health officials suspect is a norovirus outbreak. The original count was 22 students, but two more fell ill Friday afternoon.
Paramedics were called Friday morning to the Quality Hotel in the ByWard Market after receiving reports about mass nausea, vomiting and diarrhea among half of the 44 students travelling as part of a school group. The students are between 13 and 14 years old.
Paramedics notified Ottawa Public Health, which dispatched an outbreak management team to collect stool samples for laboratory testing. The test results were not likelyto be available for at least 12 hours.
The students and adults with symptoms were treated at the hotel for dehydration and nausea, but no one had been hospitalized by Friday afternoon. Ottawa paramedic spokesperson J.P. Trottier said those being treated were responding well to the treatment.