GLASSON LAKEHOUSE, A luxury hotel in Co Westmeath, has voluntarily closed after an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness among people who attended the premises.<\/p>\n
The HSE confirmed this afternoon that its Department of Public Health in Dublin and the Midlands has been investigating the outbreak since Monday, 24 August.<\/p>\n
The premises has not been named by the HSE, but The Journal understands it is Glasson Lakehouse, a four-star hotel and wedding venue near Athlone.<\/p>\n
It is understood that at least one wedding due to take place at Glasson Lakehouse this weekend has had to be moved to an alternative venue following the closure.<\/p>\n
The hotel\u2019s online booking system is also currently showing no rooms available to book until Wednesday, 2 September. It is not clear whether this is related to the outbreak or if the hotel was already fully booked for those dates.<\/p>\n
The HSE said in a statement that its Public Health team is working with the National Environmental Health Service and the premises to investigate the outbreak.<\/p>\n
It is also working to contact people who have been affected and provide them with advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cManagement and staff at the premises are cooperating fully with Public Health advice,\u201d the HSE statement said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe premises has voluntarily closed to facilitate outbreak control measures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glasson Lakehouse has been contacted by The Journal for comment and for further details about arrangements being made for weddings, guests and other events affected by the closure.<\/p>\n
A statement from the hotel to media this afternoon said that the illness involved is norovirus and that some recent guests and members of staff had exhibited symptoms.<\/p>\n
Norovirus is the most common cause of acute viral gastroenteritis.<\/p>\n
It is not yet clear how many people have become ill or when Glasson Lakehouse will reopen. Members of the site\u2019s golf club received a message stating that the site would be closed until at least Monday.<\/p>\n
Gastroenteritis is an infection of the stomach and bowel which can cause vomiting and diarrhoea.<\/p>\n
The HSE said symptoms can also include fever, muscle aches and a loss of appetite.<\/p>\n
Gastroenteritis can be caused by a stomach bug and can spread through contaminated food or through close contact with somebody who is already experiencing symptoms.<\/p>\n
People who become unwell are advised to stay away from work or school until they have been free of symptoms for 48 hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GLASSON LAKEHOUSE, A luxury hotel in Co Westmeath, has voluntarily closed after an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness among…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[322,38280,22084,169745,257021,9675,2120,61,60,43,13777,30899,11344,59],"class_list":["post-606318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-disease","tag-athlone","tag-closure","tag-gastroenteritis","tag-glasson-lakehouse","tag-hotel","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-outbreak","tag-venue","tag-wedding","tag-westmeath"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}