Virus hits more
isle visitors to VegasFormer guests at the Fremont,
Main Street and California
hotels have reported illness
Boyd Gaming officials confirm that there have been more reports of Hawaii residents falling ill to a 24-hour virus at the company's three downtown Las Vegas hotel-casinos.
CORRECTION
Thursday, March 11, 2003>> Janice Okubo is the spokeswoman for the state Department of Health. In a Page A6 story in Tuesday's early edition, her last name was misspelled as Kubo.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at fbridgewater@starbulletin.com.Nevada and Hawaii media reported last week that more than 100 people staying at the California Hotel & Casino between December and February came down with a strain of the Norwalk virus, which causes stomach flu-like symptoms.
Boyd officials confirmed yesterday that since last week, former patrons at the company's two other downtown properties -- the Main Street and the Fremont -- reported suffering similar symptoms.
"These are not new or recent reports of illnesses," said Boyd spokesman Rob Stillwell, "but because of the media exposure, more people have been calling in to say they were ill during the time frame mentioned."
Stillwell said he did not have official numbers about how many reports of illnesses were made from either Main Street or the Fremont.
Clark County Health District officials also said they did not have new numbers because they still need to investigate each case to see whether they are related to the ones at the California.
"We don't have any specific advisories for people to stay away from downtown or the California ... but we're continuing to examine everything," said Clark County Health District spokesman Dave Tonelli. "There has been an increase in calls since the media attention on this. People are putting the connection between where they were and how they felt."
Clark County health officials said they investigated and found that the California Hotel and the charter plane that brought the Hawaii residents to Las Vegas were not sources of the virus.
Stillwell said last night that he did not know whether local health officials would conduct a similar investigation of the Main Street and the Fremont.
Symptoms of the Norwalk virus include vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps, and usually last two to three days without serious or long-term health effects. Though the virus is thought to be passed on by food, Tonelli warned that it is far easier to become infected.
"An infected person who doesn't wash his hands could contaminate a surface, and then someone could come along and become infected when he touches that surface," Tonelli said. "That's why it's so important for people to wash their hands."
Hawaii health officials said they received a handful of calls from returning residents as well as a call from Clark County health officials.
Most of the calls from residents, however, came from people no longer infected.
"If we had someone who still had symptoms, we would do an investigation in support of what is being done in Vegas," said Health Department spokeswoman Janice Kubo. "We've gotten a handful of calls, but they no longer have symptoms and so we can't do any tests."
One Kaneohe police officer who reported being sick for two days while staying at the California in January said she is already back in Las Vegas this week but is taking precautions this time.
She said on the way back from Las Vegas, she counted about 30 people who had gotten sick and were on her flight home to Hawaii.
"I've got Handiwipes for the machines, bottled water, and I'm not eating at any of the Boyd hotels right now," said the woman, who did not want to be identified. "I don't want to get sick again. ... The pains were like I was having contractions last time."
