Ten guests had been taken ill with the norovirus, an airborne infection that can cause vomiting and diarrhoea. No guests were admitted to hospital and none of the Grand's staff was affected.
The management took the decision to close the 460-room hot
el in consultation with North Yorkshire Health Protection Unit, Scarborough, Whitby & Ryedale Primary Care Trust and Scarborough Council's environmental health team.
In October some guests were quarantined in their rooms after a similar outbreak of sickness. In June 2002 the hotel shut for a week-long intensive clean after 51 guests and three staff fell sick. It came just a month after an outbreak of the viral gastro-enteritis left one man in hospital and another 179 guests and 34 staff ill. Other outbreaks came in the mid-1990s when the hotel was under different ownership.
Dr Ebere Okereke, consultant in communicable disease control at North Yorkshire Health Protection Unit, will re-inspect the hotel tomorrow and is confident it will be able to re-open in time to honour its Christmas bookings.
The consultant said a number of reasons led to outbreaks of the virus in public places such as hotels and hospitals – in the Grand Hotel's case, it is an old building, with a lot of soft furnishings and heavy curtains, and many of its clientele are older people more vulnerable to the infection.
Dr Okereke said sheer "bad luck" was another factor, as the infection spreads very quickly and tends to come in cycles.
In May of that year 214 guests and staff at the Grand Hotel were affected by a similar virus.
In recent weeks Scarborough Hospital was hit by an outbreak of the Norwalk virus, forcing the closure of two wards.
No-one from the hotel was available for comment last night.
