Cases of suspect gastroenteritis

Hi,
This problem had occurred to me when I first did th GR 20 north some ten years ago ( I suffered from a light case of dysentery between Col de Vergio and Mananu).

This time though it struck me the night I slept at Manganu. I threw up 4 times, felt nausea and wasn't able to eat for the following 48 hours!!! Plus after a day of complete rest at Manganu, the following day (when I resumed my trek) some virulent dysentery made my day miserable.

The day I stayed at Manganu I asked around, and found out that I was not alone in this. Other people had had vomit the night before and other had suffered from dysentery as well.

We tried to pinpoint the origin, but everybody had eaten different food so ... could it be the water?

After reading some literature about gastroenteritis I learned that the sickness manifests itself at least 24 hours after contagion. So I wonder if this issue is localized at Vergio or thereabout.

People don't seem to attribute much importance to this problem (or probably don't like to write about it), so I couldn't find any other threads on this forum.

Still I wonder if this is a case to raise a flag. What do you think?

Any other reports?

Thank you
--Michele

Hi Mike,
Thanks for your reply.

Are you saying that people travelling south to north also had this problem? The point is the night I had vomit was after I arrived from Col de Verghio where I filled my tank and I didn't drink any water from the Manganu area (nor did I make a stop at Berg. de Vaccaghja). So if we rule out food (at Manganu I had charcuterie, omelette and beer) I can only assume the origin might be in Col de Verghio.

And when I left Manganu for Pietrapiana I had filled my tank with water from the source but treated it with enough iodine to be on the safe side (and let it rest for many hours before drinking).

So if we could have more reports it would be extremely helpful. This issue does NOT seem to be random nor sporadic.

And it would help a lot of trekkers.

So, c'mon people!!!

---Michele

Mike,
So you drank it from the tap on the new shower and toilet block of HCdV!!! That's it. I did the same. And so many other people, taking for granted that water was perfectly ok.

Of course we don't have any evidence of this, this is just a suspect .. so we can't positively say: be careful, that water is infected. But still ... a word of caution is in order.

This might/will help those forum readers preparing for this trek, to take this into account and use iodine tablets, katadine products, steripen or whatever to treat that water ..... JUST IN CASE.

Thanks for your feedback.

Ps
And no doubt I too, if I could, would be back on the trail tomorrow :)))

Thanks for your contribution Steve. The more reports we get, the better.

I don't really understand why this issue is not openly disclosed. A placard in the suspect areas should be enough to warn trekkers of potential contamination.

There is a slack kind of approach to this by the locals who should be very well informed.

Even the lady who worked at Manganu when inquired about this, replied with a dismissive "sh*t happens" type of attitude (pun intended).

I think we should take this problem to the next level and make a formal report to the "Blog officiel du Parc Naturel Régional de Corse" email address: equipemontagne@parc-corse.org

They seem so keen on informing trekkers of the current trail/refuges situation that they should take this issue very seriously.

I will write an email and encourage all of you to do the same. The more we will be the more seriously they will take this problem into consideration.

Thanks to all of you
--Michele