At least one child was taken to hospital after a sickness outbreak affected Carnoustie youngsters during a school trip to a Perthshire adventure centre.
Children from Burnside Primary School experienced diarrhoea, vomiting and severe stomach pains during and after their three-night Easter holiday stay at Dalguise Activity Centre, near Dunkeld.
It is believed they had gastroenteritis or norovirus.
At least one 11-year-old pupil was taken to Ninewells and another is thought to have stayed overnight at the Dundee hospital.
It is estimated that less than half of Burnside’s P7 pupils were healthy enough to attend school when classes returned for summer term on Monday.
PGL Dalguise said it contacted health authorities and undertook a deep clean of an infected area as soon as it was made aware of the issue.
It comes less than a year after Dalguise was forced to close temporarily due to several school children and staff falling ill with a sickness bug.
Youngster at Dalguise had ‘amazing time’ at the beginning
Youngsters arrived at Dalguise on Tuesday, April 16 and left the following Friday.
Admission was around £320 for each child.
One mother told The Courier they had to take their son to Ninewells after he initially had an “amazing time” at the centre.
“The symptoms started late Thursday evening and continued through the night,” she added.
“He had sickness and diarrhoea.”
On Saturday she contacted NHS 24 who arranged an immediate appointment at King’s Cross Hospital, where the doctor referred him to Ninewells for that day.
Here he was prescribed with antibiotics to treat a bacterial infection.
She said on Monday: “He is still not 100%; today is the first day that he has done anything outside of his bed – except when I dragged him out to hospital.
“He still has diarrhoea but has managed to eat for the first time properly since Thursday evening.
“The activity centre definitely needs to be investigated – especially as it’s not the first time.”
Carnoustie mum: ‘Seeing your child go through so much pain is awful’
Another mother said her son felt nauseous on Thursday.
“Within five minutes” of arriving home on Friday he vomited and suffered severe diarrhoea, she added.
He continued to feel ill through the weekend.
“My child is rarely unwell, so when he said he felt bad I knew he really was unwell,” she said.
“Seeing your child go through so much pain is awful.
“For many parents it’s the first time their child has been away from home so they are already worried that they will be okay – without having to agonise over them being sick due to cleanliness and general hygiene standards.
“This trip for the kids is eagerly awaited all year and buzz of excitement before they left was amazing.
“Instead of adventurous and fun memories all they will take away from this is how sick they were.
“Such a shame.”
Perthshire centre ‘undertook a deep clean’
A spokesperson for PGL Dalguise said: “We can confirm that there have been a few cases of sickness amongst one group of guests at our Dalguise centre.
“The safety and security of our guests and team is our number one priority, and as soon as we were made aware we informed the local health authorities, closed off the room and undertook a deep clean of the infected area.
“We are continuing to review the situation and are in close contact with the impacted school, and hope that all affected recover quickly.
“We can confirm that we have had no connected sickness amongst any of the other 450 guests, or team at the centre.”
An Angus Council spokesperson said: “We are aware of a number of children at Burnside Primary School with suspected cases of gastroenteritis or norovirus.
“The school is encouraging all families to follow public health advice in relation to any suspected cases of gastroenteritis or norovirus.”
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