Compensation call as illness ruins holidays

Hundreds of guests in three hotels in Tenerife have had their holidays left in tatters after large-scale outbreaks of the norovirus disease.

The symptoms include diarrhoea, dizziness and vomiting and are so severe, one concerned son, who does not wish to be named, told the Yorkshire Post he feared his 64-year-old father would not make it home alive earlier this month.

Furious holidaymakers have flooded online message boards complaining they were given no warning of how severe the situation was before heading out and leading travel lawyers at Irwin Mitchell have urged bosses at the resort and tour operators in Britain to resolve the situation.

Among the hardest hit hotels was the four-star Barcelo Santiago, in Tenerife. Several guests are now consulting solicitors.

Trevor Banks, 63, of Thornbrough Road, Northallerton, has just returned home after a two-week stay at the hotel with his wife Anne, 59.

He said: "I caught the bug after two days and Anne got it after me. I have never had anything like it, the disease really knocked us both out and completely ruined the holiday.

"We were in our room for four days unable to move.

"I'm seriously thinking about writing to the tour operator and seeking compensation."

Bedale farmers Valerie and David Robinson have been visiting the island for the past 15 years but after returning from a 4,000 two-week stay at the nearby Los Gigantes hotel last month, say the experience has put them off any future holidays.

Mrs Robinson said: "The whole place was dripping with it.

"We would all joke to each other over breakfast saying what ward are you on?

"Everybody had it.

I had been there for three days then suddenly it hit me one night. It is quite horrendous.

"There are old people staying in the resort and this could be quite dangerous for them, it is a very debilitating disease. I am not in a hurry to go back."

David Hayes, 60, and his wife Ruth, 59, of Studley Road, Harrogate, stayed in a nearby hotel called Playa La Arena but were also struck down by the disease.

He said: "Ruth got really poorly days before we were due to leave and there were other people in the hotel also affected.

"I had to call a doctor to the hotel and at one point we were worried we would have to change our flights home but luckily she recovered in time.

"The holiday cost 1,000 and the extra fees for the doctor and medicine was another couple of hundred.

"I will be claiming it on travel insurance but Thompson could have informed people better on what was going on."

A spokesman for Thomson, one of the operators whose customers visited the resort, said: "Outbreaks of the airborne norovirus are common, particularly within contained environments such as hospitals, nursing homes and schools, and an outbreak in a hotel or resort is therefore not indicative of a failing in hygiene standards.

"POSI (prevention of spread of infection) procedures have been implemented since February and an independent hygiene consultant confirmed that the hotel was operating to the highest standards."

Head of Irwin Mitchell's travel law team Clive Garner said: "This hotel's managers and the tour operators with customers staying there now and more due to travel there in the coming weeks have a duty to find out what exactly is going on and get it sorted out.

"They must know that there's a problem.

"Why haven't they got to grips with it before now?

"Clearly, a very large number of people have fallen very ill in a very short space of time, with some requiring treatment in hospital.

"That's appalling and action is needed immediately."

Common cause of sickness in winter

Norovirus infections are the most common cause of gastroenteritis in the UK.

The infection is sometimes called 'winter vomiting disease', or stomach flu.

Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and, rarely, a fever, headache, stomach cramps and aching limbs that can last for 12-60 hours.

Noroviruses infect between 600,000 and one million people in the UK every year, with outbreaks common in enclosed environments such as hospitals.

It is nearly always spread through contact with an infected person, contact with surfaces or objects that are contaminated, or by eating contaminated food or water. It can become airborne if carried by tiny contaminated particles.