Des Moines Register
07-12-06
Iowa Games organizer: Less contact limits threat of virus
Jim Hallihan says the spread of norovirus at the Special Olympics was a 'personto-person problem.'
By LISA ROSSI
REGISTER AMES BUREAU
July 12, 2006
Ames, Ia. — An organizer of the Iowa Games, which will attract 14,000 athletes
to venues in Ames over the next two weekends, said he is unconcerned about
participants catching norovirus, the sickness that caused alarm during the
Special Olympics last week.
Jim Hallihan, executive director of the foundation
that oversees the Iowa Games, said the spread of the virus during the first
Special Olympics USA National Games "had to do really with being unclean in a
way. There were a lot of kids with special needs, a lot of hugging. It was more of
a person-to-person problem, and all those people are gone."
Calling the
outbreak an "isolated situation with those people," Hallihan said, "there was so
much contact and grabbing name tags. Lots of those kids — they had special
needs — they might be wearing diapers and that kind of stuff."
Rich
Fellingham, president of Special Olympics Iowa, said, "That's probably one of the
most ridiculous statements I think I've ever heard. And I find it unbelievable he
would say that."
The fact is that the majority of Special Olympics athletes do
not wear diapers, Fellingham said. He said the games have a program for
athletes with severe and profound limitations, and a few of them do wear diapers.
Of the 13,000 Special Olympics participants in Iowa, he said about 700 were in a
program for those with severe and profound impairments.
Hallihan also said
he didn't think the virus would spread to his athletes because it affected a small
percentage of those from the Special Olympics and was described to him as a
short-term bug. He said he was confident that Iowa State University crews had
cleaned any facilities where people became sick.
Fellingham said Special
Olympics athletes are no more susceptible to the flu virus than members of the
general public, although he agreed with Hallihan that Iowa Games participants
don't need to be worried this year any more than any other year, because the
virus's appearance in Ames is a week removed.
"The difference between our
games and the Iowa Games is our event is a week long," he said.
Fellingham
also defended Special Olympians, saying, "Their hygiene is just as good as any
other athletes. As far as hugging — there might be a little more of that in Special
Olympics than other sports."
In a follow-up interview, Hallihan said he's been
involved in Special Olympics and has observed first-hand the extra hugging and
making more contact in regular situations.
He also said that when dealing with
kids with special needs, some of them need help washing their
hands.
Responding to Fellingham's statement that Special Olympics athletes
are no less hygienic than the rest of the population, Hallihan said: "Whatever they
say is fine. They run the show."
Ames was the site of the first Special
Olympics USA National Games, which drew 25,000 athletes, coaches,
volunteers and relatives to Iowa State University.
Two samples from people
associated with the Special Olympics tested positive for norovirus, a cause of
what is known as the stomach flu.
The Iowa Games take place Thursday
through Sunday and July 21-23. The largest percentage of athletes are children
from the ages 10 to 18, Hallihan said.
Nicole Peckumn, a spokeswoman with
the Iowa Department of Public Health, said no source of the virus outbreak has
been identified.