Euro 2012 co-hosts hit with vomit-causing illnesses

With the Stanley Cup Finals set to end tonight (I’m not convinced New Jersey will prolong the inevitable), my sports-watching efforts will soon switch to Euro 2012 soccer (or non-American football). It’s not the most exciting sport but I do like the lack of commercial breaks. According to Sports Illustrated, co-host Ukraine’s team has been hit by some sort of pathogen that is affecting 10 players and almost cancelled a warm-up game yesterday. Lots of vomit associated with a team sport? Sounds like norovirus.

The main concern is over Ukraine’s most-capped player, midfielder Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, who has been on a drip.
"We have to bring the guys out of this condition,” coach Oleg Blokhin said. "It’s good that the poisoning didn’t happen on June 11. For me, the most important thing is healthy footballers.”

Team doctor Leonid Mironov told reporters Wednesday that Tuesday’s match against Turkey, which Ukraine lost 2-0, was almost cancelled after the players had come down with the bug that was causing some of them to vomit. Blokhin said that fullback Bohdan Butko and midfielder Denys Harmash played against Turkey despite being ill.

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About Ben Chapman

Dr. Ben Chapman is a professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. As a teenager, a Saturday afternoon viewing of the classic cable movie, Outbreak, sparked his interest in pathogens and public health. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers, and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, maybe not surprisingly, Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman.