Health scare after business delegates fall ill at centre

twelve victims taken to hospital as fingers are pointed at tuna dish

By Ryan Crighton

Published:

One of Scotland’s top conference centres was at the centre of a major health scare yesterday after a dozen business delegates became seriously ill during a lunch.

Six men and six women were taken to hospital after becoming unwell at the Gallery restaurant at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre.

Two remained in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary overnight as NHS Grampian and environmental health teams examined the restaurant to try to establish what caused the sudden illness.

The diners became ill at around 1pm, sparking a huge emergency response over fears the cause of the vomiting and diarrhoea outbreak was airborne. Those affected were also showing some showing signs of blotchiness and swelling of the glands as more than a dozen emergency vehicles arrived.

At one point a sell-out concert by rock band The Stereophonics was facing postponement as emergency services searched for the source of the outbreak. However, it emerged last night that a toxin sometimes present in tuna is believed to have been at the centre of the incident.

The restaurant was immediately closed, and investigations were carried out by public health teams. Grampian Police also attended the scene to help co-ordinate efforts to take the patients to hospital.

A spokesman for the AECC said: “None of the public areas are affected, and all planned events are going ahead as scheduled.”

NHS Grampian said in a statement: “Twelve patients, six male and six female, were admitted this afternoon at 3.15pm to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea.

“The patients were transferred by ambulance and made way their on foot to accident and emergency.

“NHS Grampian’s public health department are investigating with colleagues from the environmental health department of Aberdeen City Council.

“It is believed the incident may be food-related. Environmental health officers are visiting the AECC.”

AECC managing director Brian Horsburgh said that those who became ill were understood to have eaten a tuna dish.

He said the illness could have been caused by a toxin present in tuna which is sometimes “retained” regardless of how it is stored or prepared.

Microbiologist Hugh Pennington said he believed the outbreak was caused when someone ate food, most likely meat or rice, which was already contaminated.

He said: “Normally food poisoning takes days to hit somebody. But because this happened so fast it sounds like someone has eaten food which already has the toxin in it.

“This kind of infection takes hold very quickly and it would be very dramatic with all these people suddenly falling very ill.

“But the symptoms usually subside very quickly and shouldn’t have a severe effect on fit and healthy people.”