Treatment station set up in airport as passengers fall ill

HEALTH professionals were forced to set up a temporary treatment station in Cork Airport late on Saturday night after 15 passengers on a plane from Tenerife starting vomiting.

Before the plane touched down the pilot contacted the airport to alert them to the problem and a team including emergency department consultant Chris Luke, a nurse, GP and an advanced paramedic with four ambulances and a mini-bus were dispatched to the scene to meet the passengers who had been advised to stay in isolation on the plane. The medical team were in contact with the HSE South’s Department of Public Health.

“I felt that because the hospitals’ emergency departments were so busy anyway, it was best to go to the airport, establish a forward aid station and vet the people at the scene,” said Dr Luke.

“As it turned out we were able to filter the people who were ill. Of the 15, 10 decided themselves not to come to hospital though they were invited to do so and we sent them home with appropriate advice and we decanted five to Cork University Hospital and the South Infirmary.

“They were all recovering though there were two or three who were a bit shook. There was one lady in her 60s and two young teenagers who were very pale and sickly.”

He said that after speaking to passengers it became clear that most of the people were ill before they went to the airport and there had been significant turbulence during the flight.

“There appears to have been a norovirus or winter vomiting virus going around in Tenerife because a lot of them were describing how other members of their parties or families had had medical attention in Tenerife before returning home so there appears to have been a deal of sickness,” he said.

“We thought initially it might have been an airport or airline food poisoning but in fact the turbulence was making those people who were recovering feel acutely sick again.”

Remaining passengers were given health advice on standard hygiene precautions like hand washing, and advised to contact their GP if they became unwell. They were then allowed get off the plane.