Norovirus has taken over the holidays in the US.
Cases of norovirus, the virulent disease that causes vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain, are increasing and cannot be killed with hand sanitizers alone.
As reported by Todaylevels of the virus in wastewater are ‘high’, indicating that the number of cases is expected to rise in the coming weeks.
“It’s a devilish virus because it can spread in so many ways, and it’s so highly contagious,” Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told the newspaper.
Outbreaks are common in dormitories and on cruise ships, and an AIDA Cruises ship currently on a 133-day world tour with stops in the U.S., England, Mexico, Japan and South Africa is experiencing an ongoing outbreak of the virus that has sickened more than 100 passengers and crew.
Although it is also called stomach flu, norovirus is not caused by the flu virus.
“You can get norovirus if you accidentally get small particles of feces (poop) or vomit in your mouth from a person infected with norovirus,” says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
They continued: “If you get a norovirus disease, you can lose billions of norovirus particles that you can’t see without a microscope. It only takes a few norovirus particles to make you and other people sick.”
“It takes very few particles, between one and ten, to initiate an infection,” Schaffner said. That’s why it spreads so easily through food, when meals are prepared by an infected person who has not washed their hands properly.
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy to avoid getting sick because alcohol-based hand sanitizers are not effective against the virus. “You have to use soap and water, which literally picks up the virus and flushes it down the drain,” Schaffner said.
The CDC guidelines reiterate this by saying, “Hand sanitizer does not work well against norovirus. You can use hand sanitizer in addition to washing hands, but hand sanitizer is not a substitute for hand washing, which is best.”
