Carbon monoxide ‘can mimic’ signs of flu

Deadly carbon monoxide gases can mimic bugs such as the common cold or flu, a pathologist said yesterday.

Margot Bolster, the assistant State pathologist, said her conclusions were that a woman at a hen party in Kinsale, Co Cork, had died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning at the town’s Trident Hotel.

She said exposure to carbon monoxide was particularly dangerous as the first symptoms were like a cold or flu.