Dozens of hikers say they fell ill during trips to a popular Arizona tourist destination that features towering blue-green waterfalls deep in a gorge neighboring Grand Canyon National Park.
Madelyn Melchiors, a 32-year-old veterinarian from Kingman, Arizona, said she was vomiting severely Monday evening and had a fever that endured for days after camping on the Havasupai reservation.
She eventually hiked out to her car in a weakened state through stiflingly hot weather and was thankful a mule transported her pack several miles up a winding trail, she said.
“I said, ‘If someone can just pack out my 30-pound pack, I think I can just limp along,’” said Melchiors, an experienced and regular backpacker. Afterward, “I slept 16 hours and drank a bunch of electrolytes. I’m still not normal, but I will be OK. I’m grateful for that.”
The federal Indian Health Service said Thursday that a clinic it oversees on the reservation is providing timely medical attention to people who became ill.
Environmental health officers with the regional IHS office were sent to Havasupai to investigate the source of the outbreak and to implement measures to keep it from spreading, the agency said.