After an outbreak of severe gastroenteritis among around 50 visiting rugby players from Glasgow Warriors and Ulster in Durban recently, an independent medical review has been launched to determine the cause, and to rule out the possibility that tap or sea water in the region was responsible.
The two international squads from Scotland and Ireland were due for a clash with the Sharks and Lions when they became violently ill and the matches were postponed at the eleventh hour, reports the Saturday Star.
Although there were accusations that the city’s tap and sea water was to blame, after reported high levels of e.coli were recently detected, the eThekwini Municipality was vindicated when the United Rugby Championship announced that the teams might have been infected before arriving in South Africa.
“… there are some indications they actually brought it with them,” said United Rugby Championship CEO Martin Anayi, adding that the medical review was important, so as not to cast any aspersions or accusations, but to understand what had happened.
The municipality was adamant there were no quality issues with tap water in Umhlanga where the teams had stayed.
“If there were, then many residents of Umhlanga would have fallen ill as well. On the issue of swimming, the municipality has consistently communicated which beaches are safe for swimming and which are not. It beggars belief that international rugby players, who were in the country for important fixtures, would have swum at beaches that are closed for swimming. The teams and their management would have had to be extremely reckless to do this,” it said.
In a statement, the Glasgow Warriors medical team confirmed that 32 members of their squad had severe gastrointestinal illness while in South Africa, and that the numbers escalated in the second week of the tour, which made them unable to safely field a team against the Emirates Lions in a match scheduled for Johannesburg.
“The symptoms of the illness and transmission behaved like norovirus and this has subsequently been confirmed via medical testing.”
Anayi said time permitting, the postponed matches would be rescheduled to take place in a few weeks.
Saturday Star PressReader article – Probe under way to source rugby bug (Open access)
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