American among 7 tourists hospitalized after drinking cocktails at 5-star Fiji resort

Seven foreign tourists, including an American, were hospitalized in Fiji after drinking cocktails at a resort bar, Fijian authorities said on Monday, just weeks after six tourists died of suspected alcohol poisoning in a separate incident in Laos.

All seven were taken to hospital on Saturday night suffering from “nausea, vomiting and neurological symptoms,” according to Fiji’s health ministry.

They fell ill after drinking pina colada cocktails prepared at a bar in the five-star Warwick Fiji resort on the Coral Coast, about 45 miles west of the capital Suva, officials said.

A health ministry spokesperson said the seven guests, aged from 18 to 56, included four Australians, one American and two others whose nationalities were not given.

One of the patients had been discharged Sunday from the Sigatoka Hospital near the hotel, said the tourism minister, Viliame Gavoka.

The other six were transferred to the larger Lautoka Hospital on the island’s west coast, he said, with two of them released earlier Monday and another two set to leave later in the day.

The two patients remaining in Lautoka Hospital were in a “stable condition” in intensive care, he told a news conference.

David Sandoe, an Australian man who said his daughter and granddaughter were hospitalized, told Sky News Australia that his relatives had been released from the hospital and were due to fly home on Monday night.

Fiji’s health ministry and police force were investigating the cause, Gavoka said, adding that results from “critical” toxicology tests normally take three or four days.

“Everyone is in a state of disbelief that this has happened,” he said.

Asked whether the illness might be related to methanol poisoning, Gavoka said that was “something that we don’t believe is possible in Fiji.”

While declining to speculate about the cause, he said it was a “very isolated incident.”

Fijian tourism, which attracts close to a million people each year, was “typically very safe,” he said.

The minister said he did not believe it was the result of any deliberate action.

The hotel bar involved was “very busy” on the evening, he added, but only seven people were sickened by the pina coladas, which were normally “pretty harmless”.

A spokesperson for the Warwick Fiji hotel said it was conducting an investigation and waiting for test results from the health authorities.

“At this moment, we do not have conclusive details, but we are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of our guests,” the spokesperson said.

Australia’s foreign ministry said it was providing consular assistance to two families but declined further comment citing “privacy obligations”.

In a separate incident in Laos last month, two Danish citizens, an American, a Briton and two Australians died of suspected methanol poisoning following what local media said was a night out in the town of Vang Vieng. The victims include Briton Simone White, 28, two young Australians, Holly Bowles and her best friend Bianca Jones, and two young Danish women, Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, the BBC reported. Only one of the victims, 57-year-old U.S. citizen James Louis Hutson, was male. 

Police detained the 34-year-old manager of the Nana Backpacker Hostel and seven other employees for interrogation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.