Vegas visitors report illnesses
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer
Nevada health officials are still searching for clues to a virus that has sickened more than 100 guests — most of them visitors from Hawai'i — of the California Hotel and Casino since Dec. 3.
Clark County Health District officials said a Norwalk virus — which has symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea like a stomach flu — infected guests of the downtown Las Vegas hotel during the past three months. But environmental health supervisor Daniel Maxson said no cause has been pinpointed at the hotel or the Omni Air charter that took many of the guests to Nevada.
"There's an association with that hotel," Maxson said. "Precisely how it is being transmitted, we don't know." Maxson said health officials ruled out the hotel's restaurants, which all received the highest grade A rating in the latest inspections.
Hilo resident Nellie Hamada said she stayed at the Fremont Hotel in Las Vegas on Feb. 20-24. Hamada said she and her mother got sick after eating at the California. She said that after learning about other people having complained of illness since December, "I was wondering why they didn't say anything on the plane."
Hamada said she would have been more careful about where she ate if she had some warning about a potential for illness. She said she felt worse for a neighbor couple who got so sick that they couldn't return on their scheduled flight.
Since November, Maxson said, Las Vegas saw a community spike in gastroenteritis or stomach flu-like illnesses.
Maxson said he expects that more people may report illnesses after seeing news stories about the virus outbreak.
He said the hotel has passed on any reports of illness that it has received and has stepped up its cleaning procedures and suggesting preventive hand-washing for visitors and employees.
Maxson reminds all visitors to wash their hands after using the restroom and before they eat, which people may forget when they are on holiday. "You might touch a casino's desk of cards, touch a slot machine that others have touched," he said.
Rob Stillwell, spokesman for hotelier Boyd Gaming Corp., said the hotel is cleaning more frequently and asking guests and employees to wash their hands more frequently. Even though health officials have found no cause of the disease on their property, "we stepped up our efforts," he said, "just being extra careful."
Stillwell said the company has received about 100 complaints of illness since December and continues to work toward improving sanitation.
Restrooms are being cleaned every hour, he said. "We're going back and checking that it's been done and that it's been done properly." He said the cleanup gradually intensified since January. "There haven't been as many cases in recent weeks," Stillwell said.
Kristine Chang, a Kane'ohe resident who works as an administrative assistant, also visited in February, stayed at the California and got so sick with vomiting and diarrhea that she couldn't leave her hotel room for days.
"On my trip alone, there were 30 people sick," Chang said.
Chang and her fiancee are considering moving to Las Vegas and she set up two job interviews while she was there. She made it to the first interview at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas but had to cancel a second with the state personnel office. "I couldn't even leave the hotel; I couldn't even leave my room," she said.
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
Where to call
Clark County health officials encourage anyone who has suffered stomach flu-like symptoms during or after a visit to Las Vegas to call its epidemiology section at (702) 383-1378.
