Vomiting, diarrhea, fever: a major computer conference held in Montreal last week will leave a bitter taste for dozens of participants, who fell ill following the event. Lunchtime sandwiches could cause food poisoning.
About 700 people gathered at McGill University from June 5 to 9 to attend a conference organized by Info-Can, an organization that aims to “foster excellence in research and higher education in computer science in the Canada”. In particular, we discussed artificial intelligence.
Since then, dozens of people have reported falling ill during or after the event, said Dave Meger, a professor at McGill University’s School of Computer Science and one of the conference organizers. Reached on the phone Monday morning, he himself claimed to have been “very sick” for a few days.
It’s like gastro, food poisoning. It seems very common [parmi les participants].
Dave Meger, one of the conference organizers
He is reluctant to comment on the number of people who have been sick and suspects that several have not bothered to inform his team. Some participants, however, wrote to the organization that they went to the emergency room because they were too unwell.
The sandwiches in question?
Faced with the number of people who reported having been sick in the context of the conference, Dave Meger wrote to all participants on Saturday to urge caution, in case it was a transmissible virus.
“I wrote to people to wash their hands, to wear a mask, as [les symptômes] look like COVID-19, or what sometimes happens on cruise ships with noroviruses. »
So far, according to Dave Meger, no participant has reported having infected anyone close to him, which suggests to him that it is not such a virus.
In the dock, for now: the lunches that have been served all week. Food service officials have been notified, says Dave Meger, but have responded that they are “certain” the problem is not theirs.
What is at issue? There are only hypotheses, adds the professor, and everyone has their own. The beef sandwich on Tuesday, the turkey sandwich on Thursday? The salmon ?
Certainly, people said they fell ill from the opening of the conference until the very last day.
Professor Meger says the City of Montreal’s food inspection service has contacted him and asked attendees who have symptoms to report them.
At the time this text was published, the City of Montreal had not answered our questions concerning the investigation that the food inspection service would have triggered. McGill University’s communications department was also unable to answer our questions on Monday.
The spokesman for the Montreal Regional Public Health Department, Jean-Nicolas Aubé, for his part, was surprised Monday to have received no report on this subject, both from the organizers of the event and from the affected people.
He referred us to the Institut national de santé publique du Québec, whose spokesperson Richard Daigle told us that since “the incident occurred during an event held in Montreal, normally it falls under the regional public health, especially since we know nothing of the cause”.