Some Test of Metal competitors got more than just prizes and a sense of accomplishment from the race when dozens of racers contracting a gastrointestinal bacterium, according to reports.
Health experts say that the cause of the 18 confirmed cases of campylobacter infections - which causes severe symptoms of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and headaches - is still undetermined. However theories range from ingestion of the racecourse mud, teeming with bacteria from animals' feces, to ingestion of creek water to bad fruit.
"So far the common denominator is mud that was splattered on everybody as they raced through the course and that got on everything - camelbacks, water bottles, you name it," said Dr. Paul Martiquet, medical health officer for the Sea to Sky region.Initially health officials thought the rash of infections, which also affected at least one spectator, was linked to the water supply given on the course, and that creek water may have been given to the riders.
However, Martiquet said this theory has since been discarded. And race director Cliff Miller vehemently denies the allegation."No creek water was given out," said Miller, who noted that water for the event was provided by Canadian Springs Water. Miller added that left over bottled water returned from station two - said to have been the location where creek water was doled out - so it would make no sense for anyone to resort to other sources.
While Miller said such an incident has not occurred at the Test before, he did participate in one race where competitors contracted a bacterium through contact with mud when a racecourse took competitors over a cow field.
"There was one event several years ago in Summerland where they ran the race through a cow field and there was a couple of hundred people that were sick from cow [manure]," said Miller.
Health officials think that animal feces, which contain campylobacter, could have been mixed into the mud and subsequently spread onto the riders and inadvertently ingested.
"It's something that is always present in the environment," said public health nurse Jane Corder.
"Feces from animals on the trail - dogs, horses, bear, whatever - it all got mixed into the mud, so that's our hypothesis at the moment."
Corder and Martiquet are working with epidemiologists from Vancouver and Ottawa to investigate the illness, and Vancouver Coastal Health and the B.C. Centre for Disease Control will be distributing an electronic survey to all Test contestants beginning today (June 29).
"That survey will basically go through everything that people consumed to find the common denominator," said Martiquet, adding the bottled water, mud and fruit handed out to competitors will all be tested. "We're leaving no stone unturned."
He said that he hopes the investigation will provide with answers so that preventative measures can be put in place and a similar outbreak does not occur again.
Campylobacter infections usually last 24 to 48 hours. If symptoms continue past that point Martiquet said people should go to their family doctor, where they can be administered an antibiotic.
