Postcard from the Nationals

[Andrew S.]

If you are going down to Melbourne this year make sure you are very careful with what you eat and drink.
Give some consideration to drinking only bottled water.
Several people from different States have gone down with a bad stomach virus which put them out of action for up to 48 hours.
Walter De Veer Teams suffered as a result of this, and some people were even hospitalised. No-one is really sure what is causing this and Rachuig Managers would be well advised to sterilise all team drink bottles before and after use.

 

[The Spanner]

Hi Andrew,

Just an update on this, from what we heard (read 'allegedly'), a lot of the shops in the centre are also missing staff from this virus.

The Sth Qld De Veer side had 3 of the 8 members stricken by the virus, with one hospitalised.

We hope to do better than this next year.

 

[sandor]

Most of the WA ATBSO Bowlers 20+ got a bad virus too, including me, i then developed pneumonia on my return to WA.

My wife Joyce is still off work after 2 weeks

 

[Tiger]

Sounds suspiciously to me like a certain shopping centre might want to check its water cooling towers once in a while.
From people I know that were there, you didn't know wether to have a toilet glued to your butt or have a bucket strapped to your chin...........or both - nasty stuff

 

[pebbles]

you interstaters just cant handle the water down here....

it's like anywhere you go on a holiday, be careful of the tap water, cause its different to what you drink at home....

plus you have OUR wonderful weather here, in which your wearing shorts & a singlet one day, and in jumpers and trackies as if your about to go to the snow the next....

you always know a melbournian from an interstater in melb..... they come prepared with a jacket....

 

[Andrew S.]

Yeah right.
Probably explains why so many of your lot move up here. :lol:

 

[grumpie]

Andrew
I don't think it's in the food or water.
I think tiger has it right.
The Vic WDV team lost 2 managers(1 hospitalized),1 coach ,6 bowlers & 2 support members.All with two different symtems.
My wife is still sick and not improving,hope it doesn't last much longer.
Three TBA staff also came down with this they thought it was the food.(I dont think so)

 

[The Spanner]

I don't think it had anything to do with Water or Food either ... Our team had brought our own water and food for the De Veer event and still had 4 knocked over (forgot to count the girls team last time).

It's gotta be the air .. it will be interesting to see how the Rachuig teams fare.

Spanner

 

[granat]

I coped a dose of it on Monday Night and still not feeling much better. I do agree however it is not in the food or the water but for so many of us to come down with it there has to be a probelm somewhere.
Well hopefully Rachuig won't cope it.
Natalie

 

[Kelsa]

Something very similar sounding happened in 2001 at the Junior Nationals at Mt Gravatt. I think someone said it had come down to something to do with the air-conditioning. If someone brings a bug with them once it is in the air it will stay there because the air-con in bowls just recycles the air if you get what I mean. Im not there so I could be totally wrong though. I hope everyone gets better and good luck all Rachuig Teams.

Kel

 

[Luke D]

Something very similar sounding happened in 2001 at the Junior Nationals at Mt Gravatt. I think someone said it had come down to something to do with the air-conditioning.

I remember that. It seemed like over half the bowl had caught the bug that year. Definitely was not a pretty sight. Especially amongst the 140 or so bowlers that were there for shield (not including the ones who were just there for nats). The worst part of that was it mainly attacked your muscles, not good at all.

 

[Tiger]

Something very similar sounding happened in 2001 at the Junior Nationals at Mt Gravatt. I think someone said it had come down to something to do with the air-conditioning. If someone brings a bug with them once it is in the air it will stay there because the air-con in bowls just recycles the air if you get what I mean. Im not there so I could be totally wrong though. I hope everyone gets better and good luck all Rachuig Teams.

Kel

Something akin to the "Sick Building Syndrome" which attacks many high-rise office tower blocks.
Most of those would have water cooling towers (as would a shopping centre more than likely), if these aren't maintained and cleaned regularly the results speak for themselves.
I know of some places that regularly cleanse and disinfect every two or three days to prevent it from happening, some are very lax on thier maintenance procedures.

From what I've also heard, is that many of the shops in the shopping centre have problems with staff coming down with similar problems to those people described at the Bowl.

Anyone heard of the term Legionella?

This might be worth reading - especially the symptoms.

http://www.legionella.org/general_info.htm

 

[Ice]

As none of the NQ team drank any Melbourne water I seriously doubt it is legionella. Most of our ill bowlers are well again without medical treatment. The article you posted said it is contracted via drinking water and I can assure you we only drank alcohol! No, just kidding.

 

[Ice]

I reckon I worked out why so many in the bowl came down with this bug. It is the tradition of passing on spares/strikes. Too much hand to hand contact and then someone has something to eat and gets sick. And the shopping centre employees handled everyone's money all day. Could be an idea

 

[The Spanner]

I don't think the tradition would help things but it was only a select few from each team ... not everyone. I'm still countiung my lucky stars that I didn't get it. A lot of us were in there 6 days straight for 8 hours at a time ..

It seemed to strike the guys more than the girls ... or is that just me being insensitive?

I'd still bet it's airborn and air-conditioner fed.

Spanner

 

[granat]

Well I do think it is in the airconditioning, a freind of mine who was bowling in the Nats and also as a pacer for WDV is now in hospital with pneumonia (hopefully spelt right). She is not too good at the moment but is on the mend.
Like I said before hopefully Rachuig won't come down with anything.

 

[pulse-tech]

the air conditioning in the bowling centre is stand alone to the rest of the shopping centre also there is no cooling tower in the system it is a refigerated type a/c
p.s the back end guys are sick too and we don't have a/c

 

[Black Duck]

From a qualified airconditionining technician who has been in the trade for 28 years, the possiblity of Legionnaires Disease is about zero in the situation everyone has described.

The airconditioning system has filtration on the the air system and also the life of an organism in the ductwork would be very short.

Infectiuos diseases are normally airborne and if you ask any one who works with the public or works for the government with the public (eg RTA, etc) they catch more sickness than anyone else.

Pack over 200 people in a bowling alley and you have organism and virus soup, only one person has to bring something to the bowl and whammo away it goes.

 

[grumpie]

Just heard from a someone that the virus has already hit some Rachuig bowlers. (Inrid Coburn & Paul Trotter from Vic)Can someone confirm this!!!

 

[Andrew S.]

I think you'll find its just the thought of playing SQ thats upset them. :lol: