Football Tournament Hit With Stomach Virus

ABC
At least 18 people from a Santa Monica, Calif., football program, including 13 players, were taken to the hospital while at the national championship tournament.

football tournament stomach virus: Mysterious Stomach Virus Puts an End to National Youth Football Championships

Las Vega, NV – It was supposed to be a tournament of the best youth football teams vying for the title of national champions this week, but the event has been terminated due to a mysterious bug that has afflicted scores of players and parents. Thus far, 60 people have come down with the symptoms of vomiting, nausea, and stomach cramps.

In all, the tournament involved roughly 100 teams from across the country and the virus struck down players from nine of those teams. In one case, a local hotel loaded up their ill patrons in a shuttle bus and drove them to the hospital.

ABC
Kids and adults at the National Youth Football Championships in Las Vegas fell ill with flu-like symptoms.
Justin Gates of Spo

football tournament stomach virus

Authorities believe the culprit is the Norovirus which annually strikes 20 million Americans. However, they are looking for the source of the virus and have not pinpointed the cause because victims were staying at a range of hotels and frequenting different restaurants. How about testing the food & water at the stadium where the games were being played?

Authorities say that victims can be contagious for 48 hours after recovering. Health officials want to prevent a larger scale spread of the flu.

The games and tournament are continuing as planned.

“A few teams are not playing at full strength with several teams losing a few youngsters due to a nasty stomach virus that is spreading across the Western United States but the teams are stepping up and giving the games everything they have…exactly what you would expect from teams of this caliber!” organizers wrote Saturday on the National Youth Football Championship Facebook page.

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