Volleyball Players Come Down With Mysterious Illness

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Volleyball Players Come Down With Mysterious Illness

Some Patients Were Dehydrated And Had Temperatures Of 103 Degrees

POSTED: 8:23 a.m. PDT April 22, 2003 UPDATED: 9:55 a.m. PDT April 22, 2003

RENO, Nev. -- Hundreds of young volleyball players who competed in Reno last weekend may be bringing home a dangerous memento from the trip -- a virus or bacterium that's causing intestinal problems so severe that some people have been hospitalized.

One of the big concerns is that all the people left Reno Sunday to return to their home cities all across the western United States.

As health officials figure out what's making people sick, they hope it's not highly contagious.

Krepp was on one of those teams that competed.

"Right after you throw up, you're like fine for 20 minutes. Then in 10 minutes, you're exhausted. And you have a huge stomach ache, and you have to run," Krepp said.

"We're going through and inspecting facilities, food facilities, the overall operations of the facilities, making sure they're doing everything right," Washoe County Environmental Health spokesman Bob Sack said.

The teams of Washoe County health inspectors tested the convention center, where the tournament was held, the Reno Hilton hotel, where security reported 80 more sick people and the local emergency rooms, where some patients had dehydration and temperatures of 103 degrees.

Health officials say that as far as they can tell, all the sick people were connected to the tournament, but that they don't know how many there are.

And now there's a concern of the illness spreading to all those hometowns. After 11-year-old Chelsea Christensen got sick, the Christensen family of El Dorado Hills returned home early. A day later, 13-year-old Cody Christensen and his mother Kathleen got sick.

If you came down with a sickness in Reno-- the Washoe County Environmental Health Department wants to hear from you. Its hotline number is (775) 328-2434.

Copyright 2003 by TheKCRAChannel.