British backpackers hospitalised after norovirus outbreak at holiday hotspot
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Two British backpackers were hospitalised after a norovirus outbreak has swept through parts of Thailand. Cora O’Mara and Sophie Silk, two friends from Essex, were staying in Ko Pha Ngan island in Thailand when they caught the virus and needed hospital treatment.
![[Cora O'Mara hanging off a tree in Thailand]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/9D9290F1-07D6-4256-98A4-D745C09C180D-2ffb.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=590)
The backpacker duo have taken to TikTok to document the rapid spread of the highly infectious disease in the country, while Thailand’s Health Department has also warned people of the virus. Cora, 23, told Metro: ‘Norovirus is everywhere. It is a jump scare, people do not want to catch it.
![[Street scene Haad Rin Sunrise Beach Ko Pha Ngan Thailand. (Photo by: Andrew Woodley/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_234038945-7620.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
‘Whilst you are backpacking you do not want to be ill, you are very vulnerable. ‘I may be 23 but I want my mum right now!. ‘It wrote off a whole week of us travelling. We lost a lot of money and time.’. Cora and Sophie claimed they had heard that several tourists were becoming ill with norovirus – which causes nausea, vomiting, stomachache, diarrhoea and other symptoms – when they first arrived on the island.
Despite checking out of their hostel and opting for a private room, the pair became extremely sick the following morning on December 12. ‘We were throwing up at the same time and I couldn’t keep anything down for hours so I had to get picked up by the local hospital,’ Cora, a Royal Holloway graduate, said about her trip to Phangan International Hospital.
