National Park Service investigates mystery illness affecting Grand Canyon rafters
GRAND CANYON, Ariz. (NBC, KYMA) - A rafting trip through the Grand Canyon left a Utah man fighting an unknown illness, but he's not the only one dealing with the medical mystery.
Matthew Wappett from Utah would love to know why he's feeling horrible. Weeks ago, he rafted down the Colorado River at the Grand Canyon. He's been sick ever since.
"I try to explain it to people. I mean, it feels like I did a hard workout every day, even though I've done nothing except for sit on my butt," Wappett expressed.
It started with an infected knee. Wappett says he skinned it, but didn't think it was too bad.
"It was weird, but my whole knee just swelled up, was red...It was awful. Then, [I] ended up on IV antibiotics and a full course of two different oral antibiotics to finally kill it," Wapper shared.
Then, the muscle and joint aches, flu like symptoms that won't go away.
"Not how I intended to go viral, but I guess it's the word out that there's something going on down there," Wappett remarked.
Wappett posted to a Grand Canyon Rafters Facebook group, and found others posting about the same thing.
One man posted saying several people in his rafting group have had the same symptoms, including severe pain, and said doctors are stumped.
The Grand Canyon confirmed Monday the National Parks Service is aware of the reported illness, and is investigating with public health partners.
"It looks like that there are several cases in different groups so definitely it is something where we feel that might be more behind it," said Dr. Britta Lassman, co-founder of BEACON, a crowd-sourcing infectious disease surveillance platform at Boston University.
They're tracking the Grand Canyon outbreak, and looking for more information.
"We just now today on Monday pushed it out also through our BEACON social media channels," Dr. Lassman said.
Lassmann says the majority of disease reports end up being something identifiable, but it just takes time to find out what it is.
Meanwhile, Wappett is waiting on more tests and trying to rest.
"I'm hoping to get some results back today or tomorrow. And, you know, I just take it day by day," Wappett remarked.
