‘Everyone was sick,’ Ont. vacationers join growing list of illness cases at Mexican resort

An Ontario woman’s dream vacation to Mexico quickly went south after she fell ill.

A group of residents in Simcoe County have joined a growing list of hundreds of recent guests who fell ill at a Mexican all-inclusive resort and are cautioning would-be travellers to turn away.

Last month, Jessica Fillmore and her partner joined eight of their friends at Sandos Playacar in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, for what was supposed to be a dream getaway.

“As soon as my partner and I showed up, I just got this weird, eerie feeling,” she told CTV News on Monday.

Fillmore reported unsanitary conditions in their room and a stench of sewage on the property. After wiping down their room, they decided to find their friends on the beach.

“We found one couple and her partner started throwing up in the ocean because it just hit him out of nowhere,” she said.

Over the course of the next several days, the group’s numbers dwindled with sickness.

Eventually, Fillmore and her partner fell ill. “They (friends) went and spoke to the guest services who kind of made it, they downplayed it, and said it was our fault, we brought a virus with us.”

One of the group’s members was diagnosed with a food-borne illness on site, according to Fillmore.

Eventually, they went off resort in order to get antibiotics.

“We made a note to speak to everyone who we came across, in the restaurants, on the beach, at the main lobby,” said Olga Alina Ocheretna, who also fell ill on the trip. “Everyone, everyone stated that they have been sick.”

After several complaints from guests, hotel staff began enforcing stricter sanitary measures and shut off access to water.

The group begged for the resort to provide bottled water for them, suspecting that 18L of water they had might have been the cause of the contamination.

“Guest services said, ‘Absolutely not, they are an eco-resort and they don’t provide water bottles,” said Robbin Fendley, who attended the trip and fell ill as well. “The funny thing is three days later, they started providing water bottles to everybody’s room.”

An online group of people who claim they also fell sick when visiting Sandos Playacar, now has over 1,000 active members.

In a statement to CTV News, a representative for Sando Resorts said it had received reports of illness affecting “several” resorts in the region, including its own, and added that it took immediate steps to reinforce its sanitary protocols.

The hotel chain also stated that to date, there has been “no evidence of contamination.”

Health officials with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) say it’s always up to the consumer to weigh the pros of cons, before visiting an all-inclusive destination.

On site, the health unit said proper sanitation methods are crucial, in order to help prevent sickness.

“Any outbreak has a lot of variables, the types of food that were served, the duration of the event, how many people were there,” said Tony Makrostergios, the SMDHU’s program manager with the food safety, smoke-free, enforcement and environmental department. “There are a lot of key steps involved in the cooking process, such as the proper temperatures, the proper cooling, that’s critical, as well as, people don’t think about the water.”

Makrostergios said unfiltered water can expose guests to contaminants and can carry hepatitis. He said staying up to date on vaccinations can help in protection.