Alex Trelinski
A MASS outbreak of food poisoning affected over 100 guests at La Manga’s Cavanna Hotel over the weekend.
47 people including eight children needed hospital treatment in Cartagena with a 15-month-old baby suffering with a fever.
Parts of the hotel looked more like a war zone with a field hospital set up and stretchers left in corridors.
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Test results from Murcia’s Ministry of Health confirmed salmonella as the cause and the hotel’s kitchen was shut down so that it could be thoroughly cleaned.
The Cavanna’s management has made no comment- likewise health officials.
Guests speaking to the La Verdad newspaper suggested that a fish buffet and a spinach-filled pasta dish- and specifically its sauce- were the culprits.
Susan, from Talavera de la Reina, said her daughter. 15, ate the spinach dish on Saturday and became feverish.
Another guest said their group all ate meat and were fine with one exception who had some fish and confined herself to bed with abdominal pain.
The popular seafront hotel had 800 guests and the first problems surfaced on Saturday.
People reported suffering from fever, vomiting, and feeling tired with 28 food poisoning cases reported.
That went above 100 the following day, with food still being served in the dining room until Sunday afternoon, despite sickness spreading around the hotel.
Entire families were suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea, and the hotel’s function room became a temporary hospital with pool loungers used as stretchers.
Ambulances from La Manga as well as further afield from Cartagena, Murcia, and Los Alcazares were drafted in with around 20 medical staff.
Patients were either treated at the field hospital or in their rooms with rehydration fluids.
Meals were subsequently provided by an external catering firm, but guests also ordered takeaways or dined at local restaurants.
Dozens of tourists besieged the reception desk on Sunday afternoon demanding forms to file complaints and requests for refunds or compensation.
Some checked out early after making their feelings known about what had happened.
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