Press
A small town on a popular holiday lake is currently being hit by a norovirus outbreak. Local residents are criticizing the late warning.
Torri del Benàco – Just north of Bardolino lies the tranquil Torri del Benàco. The 3,000-person community on the eastern shore of Lake Garda is actually an idyllic place. Actually. Because Torri del Benàco is currently affected by a health crisis. A gastrointestinal virus has spread among the population.
Hundreds of people on Lake Garda hospitalized with severe gastrointestinal complaints
Reports from the daily newspaper The Republic According to the Italian authorities, hundreds of people with signs of acute gastroenteritis have been admitted to Peschiera del Garda hospital in recent days. Symptoms range from vomiting and nausea to abdominal cramps and fever. Health authorities concluded that the high number of cases in the small community could not be a coincidence.
The culprit was quickly identified: a norovirus, which, according to media reports, was detected in several stool samples from affected people. How The Journal reported, between 200 and 300 people have complained of severe symptoms that can last up to 60 hours. A similar outbreak of noroviruses led to also in Germany during a spring festival to numerous illnesses.
Use of tap water restricted – source of contamination still unknown
The virus spreads through contaminated water and food. The water supply of the affected municipality on Lake Garda is suspected to be the origin of the mass outbreak. For this reason, the mayor of Torri del Benàco, Stefano Nicotra, has issued an order prohibiting the use of drinking water for normal use. “Do not use for personal or alimentary use until further notice,” Nicotra posted on Facebook.
Residents were asked to use only bottled water and to follow strict hygiene measures, including thorough hand washing and disinfection of surfaces. To prevent the spread of the virus, the water supply was disinfected with chlorine as a precautionary measure.
However, the exact source of the contamination is still unclear and is currently being investigated in laboratory tests. It is suspected that the recent rise in water level in Lake Garda could have led to contamination, according to the RepublicA popular beach on Lake Garda recently had to be closed due to bacterial contamination.
Resident Torri del Benàco angry about late warning “I don’t feel sufficiently protected”
Many residents expressed their displeasure at the fact that the authorities were slow to inform them about the contamination. “Why did the authorities wait until today (Friday, June 28) before warning us?”, one affected resident asked the The Venetian CorriereShe added: “I am very upset and do not feel adequately protected. If I had not gone to the pharmacy, I would not have found out.”
Another woman, who had only returned home on Thursday (June 27) with her newborn child, reported similar things. “Luckily, the neighbor warned me and I avoided using tap water, but my partner, who was at home during these days, had diarrhea and nausea,” she told the regional edition of the Corriere della Sera. Some of those affected reported that they had been suffering from the symptoms for a long time. One woman said that her family had been suffering from the symptoms for about ten days.
“Half of the village” affected – Recent norovirus outbreaks under control after two weeks
There is also dissatisfaction in the hospitality industry: “We inform the new guests, but we don’t know how to deal with the incoming guests,” said a hotel operator to the Corriere“In the pharmacy they say that half the town has gastrointestinal problems. We give the tourists two bottles of water and recommend not using the tap water,” explained the operator of another accommodation.
It remains unclear how long the health crisis will last. In a previous norovirus outbreak in other regions such as Lombardy in the spring of this year, it took about two weeks to get the situation under control. Concern about the tropical disease Dengue on Lake Garda. (jm)
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