Olympic badminton teams hit by norovirus during Derby hotel stay
A hotel in Derbyshire has reopened after several guests, including five members of the Olympic badminton teams of Canada and Australia, fell ill with food poisoning.
The Health Protection Agency (HPA) investigated after guests came down with stomach bugs after eating at the Mickleover Court hotel in Derby last week.
It is understood that three members of the Australian badminton team, and two members of the Canadian team were affected with norovirus. The Australians have since fully recovered, but the two Canadiams missed a warm-up match on Saturday.
The hotel confirmed that it had closed as a precautionary measure, but is now operating as normal.
A spokesperson for the hotel said: "Mickleover Court Hotel is now open after being temporarily closed as a precautionary measure over the weekend due to a small number of guests being diagnosed with a viral infection. Environmental Health Officers tested a number of areas in the hotel prior to the closure and these tests have proved negative however we did not feel we could take the risk of waiting for these results.
"The hotel team have worked very hard to lesson any disruption to events that had been scheduled to take place over the weekend. We'd like to extend our sincere thanks to guests for their patience during this time and look forward to welcoming them back to Mickleover Court Hotel in the future."
The HPA confirmed that it had been notified of a "number" of food poisoning cases associated with the hotel, including members of the badminton teams.
An HPA spokesperson said: "Norovirus has been identified as the cause of the infection and we are working with environmental health officers from South Derbyshire District Council to identify the source of the illness.
"Norovirus is the most common cause of infectious gastroenteritis (diarrhoea and vomiting) in England and Wales. People can suffer from norovirus at any time of the year, although activity increases in the winter months. It usually resolves in one or two days and there are no long-term effects."
By Neil Gerrard
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