Vomiting (Norovirus) bug in Gran Canaria

woodred

Has anybody up to date information on "Bug" in Gran Canaria. We are booked to go to Costa Meloneras hotel and H10 Meloneras Palace for 1 week in each. We are a family of 6 including Grandparents aged 65 and 2 children ages 3 and 6. We have looked at reviews on Trip Advisor and both hotels have the virus. We have emailed hotel but they say it is under control but I can't believe that as reviews are up to date. Any advice appreciated.

calebdylan

There are several things you could do. I have the same problem with traveling, same with my older brother but I don't vomit normally. I just get an upset stomach. A couple things that work is bringing a water bottle with cold water and lemon juice. Lemon water can help soothe the stomach as well as water with ginger! It helped me a LOT and you could also try massaging your pulse points on your wrists because it can help calm you down and apparently the blood vessels or vains from pulse points are attached to something in your stomach and help calm you down when ill. Also try talking to people and being with people.

Deleerious

It's rife in Tenerife too. We all were very sick over Xmas / New Year at the Los Gigantes and looking on Tripadvisor it seems to have been bad there for a long time now.

Not good!

Deleerious

ailuro2

They will have scrubbed the place, but it never hurts to take precautions...

pay attention to where your hands are going, and where other people's hands are going.

If they touch your cutlery or food with the bug on their hands then you eat with the cutlery or eat the bread roll they touched, then maybe it just got transmitted to you , so try to choose restaurants with waiting staff rather than ones where you help yourself to cutlery, food, drink etc.. think about how many people will use the same serving spoon at the hot counter in the buffet....

Carry antibacterial hand spray, use it often. Don't touch doorhandles with your hands, the list goes on....

pack something to help rehydrate the kids if they do catch it.

Fingers crossed it has moved on....

withabix

Unfortunately, it isn't caused by the hotels - it is caused by the tourists!

snugglepet20

Just to say that antibacterial/alcohol hand sanitisers do not kill norovirus, it is resistant hence why it is so prevalent and nasty. The only defence is to wash your hands with hot soapy water.

Deleerious

Snugglepet that's a very valid point. Please read my post below. That was something I tried to explain to the staff at our hotel that the sanitiser would do nothing but they seemed to think the local doctor had recommended it. I think only bleach would kill the bacteria?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2383989

Deleerious

snugglepet20

Yes Deleerious bleach is one of only a handful of options you have. Basically the products that kill 99.9% of bacteria do not kill spore bacteria, that is the 0.01% group of which norovirus and the hospital superbug clostridium difficile are members.

These are the nastiest of bacteria because they protect themselves from hostile environments by coating themselves with spores and can live for a very long time without food or water unlike other bacteria which start dying off when they are out of their natural habitat. The only ways to kill them are by physically removing them, using bleach or by heating them to a very high temperature for a long time (i.e in a hospital sterilising machine).

Doctors and hospitals are heavily promoting the use of hand sanitiser but it is not that effective and does not work on dirty hands. I think it is more a case of getting people to do something hygienic that is quick and easy as the general public are shockingly lazy and there would be no chance of getting everybody to actually wash their hands!

Deleerious

That's all very informative. Maybe I should send this to Thomsons along with the rest of my correspondence on this matter.

Thanks again,

Deleerious

snugglepet20

Thanks Deleerious but if you are thinking of sending information to Thomsons try and get a proper explanation from a microbiologist. What I have said is very simplified and not very accurate on a scientific level when you get into the structure of the virus. Basically it is just an explantion of how it behaves and what to do with it in way that is easy to understand, if that makes sense?

Holidaybug

We were in GC in early March and I caught the bug. Went to the chemist but he told me the outbreak was severe and I should visit the doctors. I asked reception and they were going to call in a private doctor. I told them I wanted to see a doctor under the EEc scheme. I was advised to go to EL TABLERO - AMBULATATORI'O. Reception wrote this on a piece of paper and I showed the taxi driver who took me to this place. I was what we would call a medical centre based in Maspalomas. After showing my EEC medical card and passport I wated 1.5 hours and saw a doctor who gave me an injection and some rehydrations fluids - all free. This cleared the problem. If fact within hours the injection had kicked in and I felt a lot better. The next day I was able to eat simple foods and the following day was getting back to normal. We left GCon 22nd March but the problem was still rife and many people were still being ill. My advice is to go but be careful If you feel ill go to El Tablero - Ambulatatori'o immediately as do it yourself cures will not work.