A number of Australian tourists are in critical condition in hospital in Fiji after what authorities say is a suspected case of alcohol poisoning.<\/p>\n
Local health officials say seven guests staying at the Warwick Resort on Fiji’s Coral Coast fell ill after consuming a cocktail at the resort’s bar on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
They were taken to the nearby Sigatoka Hospital with “nausea, vomiting and neurological symptoms”.<\/p>\n
Two of the group were later taken to the Lautoka Hospital, north of Fiji’s tourist hotspot of Nadi, because of the severity of their conditions.<\/p>\n
The ABC understands one, a 56-year-old Australian woman, is under constant surveillance in hospital. Another, a 19-year-old woman, is also experiencing serious medical episodes from the suspected poisoning.<\/p>\n
It is understood two other Australian women, a 49-year-old and an 18-year-old, are still critical but their conditions are currently not as serious.<\/p>\n
It is not yet known what the group consumed to cause the medical episodes.<\/p>\n
It is understood four of the group of seven who fell ill are Australians. The nationalities of the other three are not yet known.<\/p>\n
Fiji Police confirmed they are investigating the incident and along with local health inspectors.<\/p>\n
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) spokesperson said consular assistance was being provided to two Australian families in Fiji.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, DFAT’s Smartraveller website updated its travel advice for Australians in Fiji, warning tourists to be aware of “the potential risks around drink spiking” and advising they “exercise normal safety precautions”.<\/p>\n
“Be alert to the potential risks around drink spiking and methanol poisoning through consuming alcoholic drinks,” the Smartraveller advisory said.<\/p>\n
“Get urgent medical help if you suspect drink spiking.”<\/p>\n
–\u00a0ABC<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A number of Australian tourists are in critical condition in hospital in Fiji after what authorities say is a suspected case of alcohol poisoning. Local health officials say seven guests staying at the Warwick Resort on Fiji’s Coral Coast fell ill after consuming a cocktail at the resort’s bar on Saturday night. They were taken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12104,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12102\/revisions\/12104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}