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Seven strangers entered Fiji ended up in the hospital after drinking pina coladas at a resort bar and falling ill over the weekend, authorities confirmed Monday.
Cocktails were served in a five-star hotel Warwick Resort on Saturday, according to local news reports. It is unclear whether rum-based drinks were served with infected alcohol, and the cause of the illness is still unknown.
Fiji’s Minister of Tourism, Viliame R. Gavoka, told reporters that they were also hospitalized four Australians and one American. The other two are foreigners living in Fiji. Five of them have been discharged, two people are in the hospital, conscious and in a stable condition.
Jemesa Tudrave, spokeswoman for Fiji’s Ministry of Health, said the patients were hospitalized for vomiting, nausea and neurological symptoms.
The incident happened weeks after the death of six tourists in the Southeast Asian country of Laos because of suspected methanol poisoning.
Brent Hill, Fiji’s head of tourism, told RNZ that while they are aware of the Laos case, the situation in Fiji is “far from it.”
Gavoka said the results of toxicology tests were pending and should be ready in three to four days, but stressed there were no other reports of similar illnesses at the resort or across the island nation.
“Resort management has assured us that they have not engaged in practices such as substituting ingredients or altering the quality of beverages served to guests,” Gavoka said in a statement.
“This is it the only reported case of the kind we have experienced in recent times, and certainly nothing similar has been experienced this year,” he continued.
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The Warwick Fiji Hotel said in a statement to the BBC that it was aware “suspected alcohol poisoning” and he took it “very seriously”. The hotel said it was “conducting a thorough investigation” while awaiting a “test results report” from health authorities to “collect all necessary information”.
Sydney resident David Sandoe told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he received a call saying yes among those hospitalized were a daughter and a granddaughter. He confirmed to the paper that they had both been drinking pina coladas before they got sick.
“There was a group of them in the lounge at this resort and they drank a similar cocktail and unfortunately, seven people came down with the symptoms they were talking about,” Sandoe said.
— With files from the Associated Press
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