Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

Whitehorse (Mar 08/00) - The close quarters of the Arctic Winter Games athlete's village is the perfect environment to spread an infectious disease.

As of March 2, the Yukon AWG team of 261 has had 34 of their Whitehorse members come down with whooping cough -- enough for Yukon medical health officer Frank Timmermans to ban the team from sleeping in the village.

Yukon team leader, Chef de Mission Trevor Twardochleb, said the health officer's decision is understandable, but tough for their team members to swallow.

"We're not only a danger to ourselves as a team but to others as well so we're spreading ourselves pretty thin to avoid a major outbreak," said Twardochleb.

"I think it's unfortunate that our kids our missing out on the athlete's village experience. And now, transportation is an issue because they are staying all over Whitehorse. The coaches have to gather their members from all over to get them to an event."

According to a medical information site on the Internet, whooping cough is an infection of the lungs that starts off like an ordinary cold. It is characterized by uncontrolled bouts of coughing and is most contagious during the "cold-like initial phase."

Because it has an incubation period of about two-weeks, if athletes have come into contact with the nasty bug, they probably won't know until they get home.

NWT Chef de Mission Gail Nesbitt said she hasn't heard of any new cases since their team arrived but she's glad precautionary measures have been taken.

"I think the move not to allow the Yukon team to sleep in a closed room with the rest of the teams was a good one," said Nesbitt.

"I agree with that decision and I think it was a safe move. We don't want to be bringing cases of whooping cough back to the NWT."

Chris Szabo is the NWT team medical liaison. He said so far, their contingent of 314 are in tip-top shape but they are watching the boys and girls closely.

"We're telling the kids not to share water bottles and to be sure to wash their hands regularly," said Szabo.

"We're making sure they are eating properly and getting enough sleep. If we have a team member who looks like they're getting run down, we get them in and get them looked after. We're taking precautions and that's all we can do."