Another Lincolnshire woman suffered stomach bug on Cape Verde holiday

A Lincoln woman who was one of 140 people in a holidaying group to contract a stomach illness in Cape Verde said she feels like the situation has been “brushed under the carpet” by TUI.

Another Riu hotel in Cape Verde – Riu Palace – could face legal action after lawyers were asked to investigate an outbreak of gastric illnesses at the site, affecting more than 80 holidayers, including Elizabeth Sutton from Spalding, as we previously reported.

The 64-year-old Lincoln woman, who wished not to be named, travelled with her 60-year-old husband as part of a group of 240 people arranged by a private organiser.

She said she has been on several other holidays arranged with the same agent, travelling with TUI all over the world, but this was one experience she’d rather forget. TUI said it was concerned to hear about her experience and will contact her.

The woman and her husband stayed at Hotel Riu Funana between October 9 and 25 and soon after arriving guests were informed about the bug.

After day two or three of their stay, she said people in their travelling group began missing planned events as they were ill with the gastric virus.

She said: “It got to epidemic proportions and out of control. Out of 240 of us, 140 from our group had contracted it.

“We both (my husband and I) had it. By day three I had the diarrhoea and my friends had sickness as well. I nearly collapsed in the restaurant when we were having a meal, and had to be helped back to my room in a wheelchair. My husband got it two days before we came back.

“The doctor in the UK said I was contagious, so I had to take a week off work and had it for 14 days.

“We need to make people aware that there is a virus there. And when you think of the proportion of our group who got it, plus other guests and other hotels, TUI are just brushing it under the carpet.”

The woman said very little information was given about what they should do, and that towards the end of their holiday the local pharmacy was also starting to run out of the medication guests had been given to treat the virus.

She also believes that TUI had known about the virus since July, but that when member of her group had complained they’d been told the company knew nothing about it.

She added that their private group trip organiser told her that he’d found out about a meeting between TUI, hotel guests at all the affected hotels, and local health authorities in Cape Verde.

He claimed that the outcome of that meeting was that the bacteria was called Shiggela, but when she looked it up she felt that the symptoms were not the same (diarrhea, sometimes bloody, fever, and stomach cramps). Symptoms usually begin 1–2 days after infection and last 7 days.

She is also frustrated that after receiving an incident report from TUI on October 23 for her husband, she has still not been sent one for herself despite flagging it up to the company. She said she contacted TUI again last week.

A TUI spokesperson said: “We’re really concerned to hear about her and her group’s experience at the Riu Funana in Cape Verde.

“Our teams worked closely with the resort and group lead to support customers in any way they needed during their stay.

“We’d like to reassure customers that we regularly audit all of our hotels in respect to health and safety, including hygiene.”

“We’ll be contacting the customer directly to resolve this matter.”

The Lincolnite also contacted Riu Hotels & Resorts about the situation, who said all of its guests from the UK come through TUI UK so it would like to stick to the statement shared by the travel company.

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