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What Is Norovirus?
How Do You Become Infected With Norovirus?
TRAVELER INFORMATION
Many travelers are under the impression that NOROVIRUS is much like the common flu bug they catch every year. That is not true. The NOROVIRUS is a direct result of failure to wash hands thoroughly after toilet usage.
It is feces contamination of food or beverages, normally from dirty hands. It is plain and simple, an act of negligence, not an accidential "flu" infection, as some would have you believe. Noroviruses are transmitted primarily through the fecal-oral route.
Norovirus, formerly known as Norwalk Virus, was discovered and named after a gastrointestinal illness outbreak in Norwalk, Ohio, in 1972.
The symptoms of norovirus are similar to those of the flu, and that is where the relationship between the two illnesses end.
The reason for wide spread, from the initial person infected, is failure to wash hands, or wash them properly, after using the toilet, then preparing or handling food or beverages. The food carries the virus and transmitts it to others. This is what the CDC means by fecal-oral route.
In most cases, people get the virus by swallowing water or food that has become contaminated with stool from someone who is infected. Norovirus is a fecal-oral agent. The food most commonly associated with Norovirus outbreaks is shellfish. Clams, oysters and other shellfish can become contaminated from raw sewage dumped by boaters. Water, ice, produce and ready-to-eat foods are also common sources of Norovirus infection.
Hand washing after using the toilet would prevent almost all cases. Other instances of spread are a result of coming into direct contact with vomit, such as projectile vomiting or dirty diapers.
It is a mistake for cruise passengers to think of norovirus as a flu bug, where there is no real way to know how it originated. It originates in the kitchen.
Noroviruses are members of a group of viruses called caliciviruses also known previously as “Norwalk-like viruses.” Infection with norovirus affects the stomach and intestines, causing an illness called gastroenteritis, or “stomach flu”, which is somewhat misleading.
This “stomach flu”, Acute Gastroenteritis, is not related to the flu (or influenza), which is a respiratory illness caused by influenza virus. In addition, noroviruses are not related to bacteria and parasites that can cause gastrointestinal illnesses.
Norovirus infection causes gastroenteritis, which is an inflammation of the stomach and the small and large intestines. The symptoms of gastroenteritis are nausea, vomiting, and/or diarrhea accompanied by abdominal cramps. Some people also complain of headache, fever/chills, and muscle aches.
Symptoms are usually brief and last only 1 or 2 days. However, during that brief period, people can feel very ill and vomit, often violently and without warning, many times a day. Symptoms usually begin 24 to 48 hours after ingestion of the virus, but can appear as early as 12 hours after exposure. In some cases, even in young adults who are healthy, it can cause death. Here is an example of that result. Here is another
Food and drinks can very easily become contaminated with norovirus because the virus is so small and because it probably takes fewer than 100 norovirus particles to make a person sick. Food can be contaminated either by direct contact with contaminated hands or work surfaces that are contaminated with stool or vomit, or by tiny droplets from nearby vomit that can travel through air to land on food. Although the virus cannot multiply outside of human bodies, once on food or in water, it can cause illness.
People working with food who are sick with norovirus gastroenteritis are a particular risk to others, because they handle the food and drink many other people will consume. Since the virus is so small, a sick food handler can easily – without meaning to – contaminate the food he or she is handling. Many of those eating the contaminated food may become ill, causing an outbreak.
It is highly unlikely that any passenger would bring the NOROVIRUS onboard. The origin normally comes from the commerical kitchens that prepared the food. In order for one passenger to give it to another, they would have to come into direct contact with the feces, vomit or droplets of an infected person. Outside of hospitals and nursing homes where food and fecal matter are more likely to come into contact with one another, restaurants account for almost all origins.
