Typhoid strikes medical chief at Games

THE chief medical officer for the beleaguered Delhi Commonwealth Games has fallen sick with suspected typhoid just before the event kicks off tomorrow, an official said.

In the run-up to the troubled showpiece, health fears have mostly centred on a serious outbreak in the capital of dengue fever, a potentially fatal mosquito-borne disease.

Typhoid, a food and water-borne illness, is also an ever-present danger in India and athletes have been warned to be very careful about their food and water intake.

“Tarun Garg is on sick leave,” an official at the Indian Federation of Sports Medicine told AFP, adding that preliminary tests pointed to a case of typhoid.

“But we have a slew of other medical officers on the job.”

The Delhi event, which will bring together 7,000 athletes and officials from countries mostly from the former British empire, has suffered weeks of disastrous headlines ahead of the opening ceremony.

Teams arrived in Delhi to find the athletes’ village was unfinished and filthy and a new footbridge next to the main stadium collapsed, injuring dozens of workers.