Mystery stomach bug affects around half of students at Östansjö school in Hallberg, Sweden

A mystery stomach bug has affected around half of the students at Östansjö school in Hallberg municipality in Sweden.

The school has just under 100 students and the first cases were discovered on Tuesday, November 7. Six members of the school’s staff have also been taken ill, according to sydnarkenytt.se.

Due to the fact that around 50 people are all displaying the same symptoms, it is suspected that the infection had the same source and could have been caused by food poisoning. As a result, samples of food and drinking water are said to have been taken, among other things.

What has happened since the bug was detected?

Anna Gustafsson, the school principal, speaking with Nerikes Allehanda, explained: ‘I have been in contact with the infection control unit at USÖ throughout the day and they have contacted the municipality’s environmental unit’.

‘The environment and health unit in the municipality and the kitchen manager have been on site to take various samples and ensure that our routines for hygiene, among other things, have been followed. We have followed all the routines that we are supposed to be able to state. Now we await test results’, she detailed.

It was pointed out to her by the news outlet that the school was recently affected by flooding and that the incident could have affected the drinking supply.

Gustafsson responded: ‘We are not speculating on what may have happened but are waiting for test results. In the meantime, we have made the decision not to drink the water’.

When did the outbreak start?

‘It all went very quickly. Some fell ill already yesterday afternoon and went home, others fell ill during the evening and night. Others have been allowed to go home today’, the principal told the publication.

Petter Waern, who has one child at preschool and one at school, told the publication: ‘Our child was as usual last night, a bit tired. They went to bed earlier than usual’.

‘Then at 10, we heard them shouting and feeling bad, vomiting. Then it was a hard night. The children were also with friends who fell ill last night’, he concluded.