Student journalists sickened during the “Great Puking Debacle of Nash 74,” otherwise known as the Canadian University Press’s 74th National Conference (or “NASH”) in Victoria, B.C. remained under voluntary quarantine in their hotel rooms Monday because of a suspected outbreak of norovirus.

About 60 of the 360 delegates to the Canadian University Press’ annual NASH conference for student journalists, held at the Harbour Towers Hotel and Suites, came down with flu-like symptoms Saturday night.

Amy Badry, one of 12 University of Calgary students attending the conference, told CBC News that during the quarantine, information was poorly communicated.

Badry said delegates were left to do their own research and call hospitals, all the while looking to Twitter for updates on the situation.

"The co-ordinators were unprepared for this, so it’s something to think about when an event like this happens," Badry said. "What is the best way to disseminate information to the people affected by it? And the best way is not through Twitter."

"We were all dressed up and running outside and people were just vomiting everywhere," she said.

Suzanne Germain of the Vancouver Island Health Authority said, "While we haven’t had it confirmed, we’re pretty sure its Norwalk virus given how it presented and developed. We suspect a student, or a few students, contracted this somehow — it takes one to two days to incubate — then they travelled to the meeting, and then it spread quite rapidly among the student group."

Maybe. Or maybe the students were sickened while eating at a location separate from the hotel.