Montreal Public Health has opened an investigation to try to determine what could have made several participants of a conference held last week at McGill University sick.
A report has been made to the Direction régionale de santé publique de Montréal (DRSP), its spokesperson Jean-Nicolas Aubé confirmed on Tuesday, while specifying that the food inspection division of the City of Montreal is also investigating.
As reported The Press On Tuesday morning, dozens of people who attended a conference at McGill University experienced symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea and fever during the days the conference was held, but also in the following days .
The conference brought together approximately 700 people, including several Canadian academics specializing in computer science. One of them testified on Tuesday that he only attended the conference for one day, but was sick for several days.
“I was ill since Thursday night and haven’t fully recovered until today,” he wrote, adding that six other people he knows have also been ill.
Suspicions of the organization of the event point in particular to the lunch boxes that were served to participants every lunchtime.
For this participant who contacted The Pressit is “clear” that the problem comes from there.
“There were large stacks of these boxes, and they were at room temperature,” he says. He laments the fact that public health did not follow up more rigorously when people began to experience symptoms.
However, the spokesperson for the public health of Montreal affirms that until Tuesday morning, no report on this subject had been received.