international news _ Jonty Skrufff _ 5th July 2005
Glastonbury Chief Dismisses Dysentery Alert
Newspaper reports suggesting that revellers at last weekend's washed out Glastonbury event could have caught dysentery have been dismissed as 'total rubbish' by the music festival's organiser Michael Eavis.
"The cows have not grazed on the festival site for a long time, so there was no danger of e-coli. As far as dysentery goes, there was no problem whatsoever, in fact no drinking water was affected at all by the weather," he told the BBC. "While it is not a good idea for people to roll in the mud, it's what they like to do," he added.
The dysentery alert was apparently prompted by raw sewage which contaminated the flood waters after numerous toilets overturned and was picked up on by media organisations across the world. Symptoms of the disease can take years to manifest and in the case of amoebic dysentery can be 'mild and vague such as persistent low-grade abdominal discomfort and nausea' according to Britain's NHS Direct.
"Liver abscesses may cause fever and weakness, referred pain in the right shoulder (referred pain means pain apparently in one place that is actually caused somewhere else), nausea, jaundice, loss of appetite and loss of weight," their website adds.
(Jonty Skrufff/Skrufff.com)
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