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REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
Paramedics dressed in protective attire enter a German cruise ship quarantined in December after an outbreak suspected to be norovirus. A new strain is making people miserable around the world this year.
It gets in your food, in your laundry, it sticks to plates and it might even float into the air when you flush your toilet. A new strain of norovirus -- often called stomach flu -- is going around and it’s going to be very hard to avoid it, experts say.
Federal health officials say a new strain, called the Sydney strain, is now causing most of the misery across the United States and the world. The virus, sometimes known as Norwalk virus or winter vomiting disease, causes vomiting, diarrhea and that someone-just-hit-me-with-a-plank feeling.
There’s no real treatment for it except for waiting it out, no vaccine, and recent studies show it’s one of the hardest viruses to get rid of. Simple cleaning alone doesn’t always kill it, and it takes just a few particles of virus to sicken a person.
“It is pretty difficult to get rid of,” says Allison Aiello, who studies how viruses spread at the University of Michigan. “It is pretty stable. It lives quite some time on surfaces. It is hard to kill.”
For instance, a few recent studies show that a quick application of hand sanitizer won’t get rid of it, Aiello says. And most people don’t wash their hands properly, either -- it takes about 30 seconds of vigorous rubbing using hot water and soap to wash away the tiny bits of virus, and that means getting under the nails, too.
Perhaps worst of all, people start spreading norovirus before they actually feel sick, and they can spread it for as long as two weeks after they start getting better.
“Imagine you have a food handler who uses the bathroom and they haven’t washed their hands thoroughly,” Aiello said in a telephone interview. “They can end up preparing a salad for the diners that evening and end up infecting a lot of people because the food isn’t cooked. You can’t really do anything about that.”
Raw shellfish is a notorious source of norovirus and other foodborne germs, but at least one recent study suggests norovirus may be even more insidious than that. In December, a team at Ohio State University found the virus stuck to plates that had been washed in restaurant-like conditions -- and they found sticky dairy products like cheese helped the virus stay there.
Hand-washed dishes are especially likely to carry the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says in its website -- which could be one reason norovirus causes so many outbreaks on cruise ships. “You cannot get the water hot enough if you wash by hand,” says Aiello.
Norovirus is spread fecally -- in the poop -- and that means it can get into laundry. Studies show that fecal matter spreads even in ordinary laundry, so if someone is sick, it’s important to use very hot water and bleach to destroy virus that could be on any clothing, sheets or towels.
And regular cleaner won’t get the virus off surfaces. CDC recommends using bleach, including chlorine bleach or hydrogen peroxide.
Complicating the problem, most restaurant workers don’t get paid sick leave, so if they miss work, they don’t get paid. This means many workers come in sick, and they can spread the virus to hundreds of customers. Food handlers, dishwashers, even staff who bus and clear tables, all can spread the germ.
“If they have to go back to work there has to be complete and utter vigilance about washing your hands,” Aiello says.
In June, the Food Chain Workers Alliance issued a report showing that only 21 percent of workers surveyed could take a paid sick day off work. More than half said they come to work sick because they cannot take time off.
The problem extends to the home, too. There, Aiello said, several factors make it hard to keep one sick family member from infecting others.
“It could be the door handle. It could be the toilet tank cover. Some studies show it can be aerosolized. If you throw up and then flush the toilet, how much of the spray gets into the air?” she asked. One study last year showed how the virus spread on a plastic bag that had been in a bathroom where a norovirus patient threw up.
Norovirus is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis -- stomach upset -- in the United States. It makes 21 million people sick every year in the United States – 70,000 on average sick enough to go to the hospital. As many as 800 people die, mostly elderly patients who become dehydrated. It’s the the most common cause of foodborne-disease outbreaks, CDC says.
Dr. John Treanor of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York is working on a vaccine against norovirus. But the same properties that make norovirus so hard to kill also make it hard to make a vaccine.
For one thing, it’s simple. Like all viruses, norovirus hijacks live cells, turning them into virus factories that kick out particles called virions. “There is only one protein they use to make virions,” Treanor says. “If you have that one protein, it will self-assemble.”
The virus is also surrounded by a case called a capsid, which makes it hard to kill. The viruses infect the epithelial cells which line the digestive tract, causing cramps, diarrhea and vomiting, but it’s not understood exactly why.
And the virus mutates. “You typically see a specific strain, and then that strain is replaced by a new strain,” Treanor said. In this case, a strain called New Orleans has been replaced by the Sydney strain. Like with influenza, people who may have had some immunity against one strain aren’t protected agaisnt the new one.
So until there is a vaccine, what can people do? “There really isn’t very much you can do,” says Treanor. “Clearly, washing your hands is important.”
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Leave a Comment:
I dont shake hands due to people not washing those nasty hands. I cant tell you how many times i see men going to the bathroom and not wash those hands. It should also be a law that food handlers cant come to work when they are sick. Futher more they should use drs gloves when working with food.. Also kids should not be alowed to go to school when they are sick its gross, America wants to ban guns becouse so many people die per year from guns, Well people get sick and die every year too, Ban all sick people in public
Or we could ban all people in public
Time for everyone to panic!
Last year I had left-side pneumonia and could only get two days off from work or else. I could hardly walk and breathe at the same time. Nobody at work got sick, but they sure avoided me. With this virus going around, I'm going to buy a bunch of cans of disinfectant and keep spraying the house and avoid stores and public places as much as possible.
Lysol is not a food-safe cleaner. Bleach or white vinegar are the only disinfecting substances that can safely be used around food.
At the nursing home I work at Norovirus was confirmed at the beginning of this month. It is a BITCH to deal with, especially in the elderly (I am sure kids as well). It started on one level and spread like wild fire. Minnesota Department of Health advised us to seclude people in their rooms for 72 hours after they feel better, no activities, bleach protocol etc... even with that staff from nurses to laundry are falling ill. Luckily I have managed to avoid it. I wear a mask, change gloves frequently, and wash between each glove change. When I get home from work I take my shoes off outside and they stay out there, my scrubs go straight into the wash in HOT water and I take a steaming shower and scrub up. Even then, I get nervous about my kids or husband picking up something I brought home.
With that said, if you are absolutely miserable with the vomiting, call your Dr. and ask them to send you a script for Zofran. That is what we've been doing at our work and my Dr will script it to kids as young as 9 months of age. It prevents the vomiting and the virus will just go out the other way. No need to be puking everywhere if you don't have to be!
Zofran? I'm jotting that one down. I can handle sitting on the toilet with a book for a few days, but I'd much rather NOT it come up the other way.
And if you do keep drinking water, stomach acid is very corrosive to the upper g.i. tract.
What ? No "Zombie" comments ?
Now doesn't this news give you that Warm Fuzzy Feeling!?!
“It is pretty stable. It lives quite some time on surfaces. It is hard to kill.”
Ha..I was laughing at that commercial on Disinfectant Spray it kills 99.9% of germs..This must be the 1/10 that it dose not kill..But still i ponder the thought, what is the 1/10 that it does not kill before this virus even showed up?
wash hands frequently with regular soap and water for 2 min. I f you are really scared use a small betadine scrub. wash clothes in bleach and change as soon as you get home. DO NOT Touch anything unless absolutely necessary and keep away from touching face. Close the toilet before flushing and use clorox wipes in home on all doornobs, toilet seats, parts, sick handles, kitchen sick parts and spray rooms with lysol for 1 min making sure to cover surfaces.
Looks like all those ultra important flu shots do just about NOTHING for the one bug that is going to cause the most problems.
Now let some nit picky jerk correct me and state the obvious about it "helping" against other strains. Yeah yeah, blah blah blah...... cool story bro.
Best thing that could happen is to catch it, deal with it and pass it on to every body else. After that we will all be immune, for a time, until it mutates (inevitable) and comes around again. Time to cull the heard!
Life sucks, then you die.
Oh another one so these criminal doctors and drug dealers-companies can get rich in this greedy selfish society of maggots,, hard to tell where all these sicknesses come from in a garbage can and that is what these crooks hope for, they can spread them at will and get paid to drag it out like they do everything else today.. Suck you dry until you die...why fix anything when they can get rich from it.. OUR societies new mentality..
Be afraid! Be very afraid! Not of this virus but the deadly one coming after it. We are breading a supper bug, and don't even realize it!
We're not breading supper, we are breeding super!
We didn't have all this stuff going around before we started letting all the degenerates of the world in. We never had the flu when I was a kid. Keep the filthy Indians (from India), ragheads and chinks out. Oh, and the taco benders, too
The dry cleaners called. Your Grand Wizard robe is ready.
What year was that ? Old as i am there always has been the dam flu
Very good, I'll go pick it up!
I grew up in the late 40's and 50's. Nobody I knew as a child ever had the flu. Measles, chicken pox and mumps, but no flu.
Mythbusters did a segment on the cleanliness of toothbrushes...and found that they got fecal bits on toothbrushes that were left in the kitchen area. I can easily believe how EASY it could be to get this. But like the rest of the flus, you need to just weather the storm, take medicine, drink water.
What on earth did those people eat for dinner?
Fecal matter can end up on butchered meat for obvious reasons. The one from the animal.
So far, I've been lucky. Here at the office, both my co-workers have had it. One co-worker caught it from her kids, and she had to take off work the whole week, as she was either caring for them or was recovering herself.
Avoid public food places if possible , why dont any one say to wear disposable gloves ? The food industry appears to be the number 1 place of where this starts at ?
I heard bleach is only thing to kill it. Hope everyone likes white! Just kidding, 1 to 10 parts, wipe down everything, phones, keyboards, mice :)
So make sure you wash your hands with Pure Bleach often and when you are outside of your propected bubble do not breath. LOL
I'm always amazed when I see a person in a public restroom and they don't wash their hands after coming out of the bathroom stall. GROSS! I've seen coworkers do this in the corporate/business environment and I've even been in restaurants where I've seen employees do this. Of course, I complained to the manager and left the restaurant without eating. I've even asked complete strangers before "you're not going to wash your hands?" YUCK! Common sense wash your hands properly people!
I had this a couple of years ago- I'm usually pretty stoic when I'm sick but this was horrific. I called in sick to work, and got grief from the nurse manager! We were a union hospital though, so I didn't get worse repercussions for calling out.
Hand washing is very important and washing them correctly is vital too. Sticking unsoaped hands under cold water for 5 seconds isn't going to be helpful.
Great article. Why don't people spend the lousy 30 seconds to properly wash their hands and avoid this sickness? I do use a nail brush but I am a little obsessive about clean hands and nails, having worked in Assisted Living Communities. If people only knew the germs under their nails they would never put their fingers in their mouths! Some people can't fight the flu or this virus because their immune systems are compromised; even when they do all they can to stay healthy, someone else may not and they can still get sick. It is all about caring about others and some just don't care.
And here I thought I was sick due to Washington politics. Obamacare will save me.
Fear mongering at our expense. Who really pays for all this "research". WE DO. 25 years in the medical profession. All this crap just goes through cycles. And they wonder why the ER's are packed full of people who don't need to be there, most on medicaid or welfare because every little ache pain or boo boo they feel they have to call 911, usually in the middle of the night because heaven forbid they should miss The Price Is Right.
Not every virus needs to be wiped out with a shot the human body is na amazing machine of left to do it's job. Half our problems today is the overuse of antibiotics these bugs are building an immunity to them and soon we will be defenseless. not everything is intended to be cured by a pill or shot.
Let the kids play in the dirt, lose the antibiotic soaps and wipes and for crying out loud stop hovering over your kids they will heal.
I don't know about you but I had absolute uncontrollable flatulence all weekend...which strain is that?
gives new meaning to; shaking hands.......DON'T !!!!...............
Had it last week. It sucks...still don't feel really good...no appetite.