While the world is still fighting the Covid-19 virus, there’s an outbreak of another highly infectious virus called norovirus in the United Kingdom. Public Health England (PHE) recently issued a warning after norovirus cases began to increase rapidly.
According to PHE, since May end England has reported 154 cases of the norovirus. It has also been noted that cases of this highly contagious virus are reported in educational institutions like nursery and childcare centres.
Here's what you need to know about this virus:
What is norovirus?
According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) US, a “norovirus is a very contagious virus that causes vomiting and diarrhea.” It is also known as the vomiting bug.
Similar to the Covid-19 virus, the norovirus is contagious too.
How can someone get infected?
One can get infected with norovirus by coming in direct contact with an infected person, or consuming contaminated food or water, or touching contaminated surfaces and then using that hand to eat.
The CDC says that people with norovirus illness can shed billions of norovirus particles, and only a few virus particles can make other people sick.
What are the symptoms of norovirus?
The symptoms of a norovirus infection include diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, stomach pain, fever, headaches, and body aches.
It also causes acute gastroenteritis which is inflammation of the stomach or intestines.
A person starts showing symptoms after 12 to 48 hours of contracting the virus and most people get better in one to three days.
How is norovirus similar to coronavirus?
Similar to coronavirus, norovirus can also be asymptomatic in some patients too.
It also mutates rapidly, so much that sometimes the standard testing kits can’t recognise the evolved version.
Like Covid-19 causes diarrhoea in some people, the norovirus also causes diarrhoea in most infected people.
Norovirus spreads around and sticks onto surface, similar to respiratory viruses like coronavirus.
What is the treatment?
According to the CDC, there’s no specific medicine to treat norovirus. People infected from this virus are advised to drink plenty of liquids to replace the fluid lost due to vomiting and diarrhoea to avoid dehydration.
How do you protect yourself from norovirus?
There’s no vaccine available for norovirus yet.
One can protect themselves from norovirus by practising prevention methods similar to Covid-19 protocols. It is advised to practice proper hand hygiene - washing hands after using toilets, eating food, before cooking food, after changing diapers, and also before taking medicines.
Alcohol-based sanitisers are recommended for maintaining hand hygiene. Apart from that, it is recommended to clean and disinfect surfaces regularly and washing laundry thoroughly.
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