Costa del Sol hospital treats over 60 hotel guests for swimming pool poisoning

More than 60 guests of a hotel in the Costa del Sol town of Benahavís required urgent medical treatment for symptoms consistent with poisoning in the hotel's swimming pool on Sunday.

The investigation points to a possible rupture of the pressure pump that injects chlorine and acid into the pool. Regional health sources explained that the differential tripped and the system failed, which led to "the chlorine and pH ceasing to work and other gases continuing to come out".

At least 60 tourists, including children and elderly people, were treated for poisoning at the Costa del Sol hospital in Marbella. All have since been discharged. Other sources added that an unspecified number of individuals were treated at the hotel complex itself.

Following the incident, the hotel management closed the swimming pool. Some of the guests are considering filing a complaint.

Guests who checked in at the hotel on Monday morning confirmed that reception had informed them that the pool would be closed all day "for maintenance". "Maintenance is usually done in winter, not in summer, in the middle of peak tourist season," one guest said.

SUR also witnessed the entry into the hotel premises of a van from Integralab, a laboratory based in the Malaga PTA accredited for the analysis of food, water and swimming pools, as well as for legionella, food (listeria, salmonella, E. coli) and nutritional analysis.

"All I heard was that there were problems with the water, but I don't know what happened," a young Polish tourist staying at the hotel said.

The hospital declined to comment on the inciden.

Pool poisonings occur when there are not adequate concentrations of chlorine and the correct pH, leading to the formation of toxic substances that affect users and result in eye and mucous membrane irritation, respiratory problems or gastrointestinal disorders.

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