Dozens of young scouts travelling in Iceland stricken with stomach bug
The scout centre at Úlfljótsvatn lake in South Iceland. Photo/mbl.is
Foreign scouts aged 10 - 25 staying at Úlfljótsvatn in South Iceland have come down with what appears to be the norovirus. Over 170 scouts were transported to a rescue centre in Hveragerði with 62 of them sick.
The director of the Icelandic scout association says in an announcement that this was taken very seriously and that it was ensured that the foreign scout members received all neccessary care.
Doctors and paramedics were dispatched to the Úlfljótsvatn scout centre to assess the situation. The first scouts got sick around noon yesterday and in the space of a few hours, sixty of them were sick, with 55 of them children.
A couple of cases of the Noro virus appeared at the recent international scout meet in Iceland and it's possible that the norovirus was transmitted from a couple of the guests who remained in Iceland. This is being investigated to understand the source of the virus. The norovirus is highly contagious and is known for tearing through crowded spaces leaving sufferers with vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps. In the UK it's often called the winter vomiting bug.
