Image from WastewaterSCAN
With norovirus cases spreading across the United States and statistics of this highly contagious foodborne illness rising, it’s a good idea to talk prevention strategy.
How bad is the norovirus situation right now? What is norovirus and how bad is it? How can you prevent spreading norovirus at your holiday gatherings?
Let’s explore!
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports an increase in the number of positive norovirus tests over the past few weeks.
The CDC gathers this information from various sources across the country. Data comes from laboratories, hospitals, and health departments across the United States.
Reports indicate that nearly 14% of those reporting digestive illness and tested for foodborne infections were positive for norovirus. More than double that observed around three months ago. When a positivity rate of 6% was found.
This is just the reported cases.
The amount of norovirus found in wastewater has also indicated a rise in unreported illnesses (based on WastewaterSCAN data).
A wastewater (sewage) monitoring organization, WastewaterSCAN, tests wastewater samples from nearly 150 locations across 40 states for the presence of certain infectious diseases.
In addition to norovirus, WastewaterSCAN also tests for:
This data, obtained through genetic analysis of wastewater samples, is used to “inform public health and personal health decisions.”
In this case, a rise in norovirus found in wastewater samples is an indication of widespread norovirus cases that may or may not be reported to public health organizations for their outbreak data. An important tool, considering most cases of foodborne illness go unreported.
Many normally healthy people who get sick with foodborne illness can simply ride out the symptoms until they feel better. Unfortunately, not all people can do this.
What might be a weekend on the couch with bland food and frequent trips to the bathroom for one person, could be a hospital stay and serious complications for another who is more vulnerable to serious illness.
Those who experience mild illness usually never seek medical care and are therefore never tested for norovirus. Their cases is not reported and often chalked up to a “stomach bug” that is “going around.”
While often attributed to a “stomach bug,” norovirus is more than the colloquial and often downplayed illness.
Norovirus cases are more common than you may realize. Data shows that norovirus season often begins around November and lasts through April.
Each year, an average of 2,500 norovirus outbreaks are reported to the CDC.
Norovirus accounts for:
Norovirus is a viral infection. It is often referred to as a “stomach flu” (completely unrelated to influenza virus). Or a “stomach bug,” which is more accurate than the former, but downplays the true source of the illness.
A stomach bug, you see, is something perceive to just “go around.” Which, in a way, because it is highly contagious, it does. However, it is very preventable. Probably even more so than influenza.
Where does norovirus come from?
Poop.
Nobody likes to think about it. But not unlike other foodborne illnesses, this common “stomach bug” is caused by improper handwashing and traces of infectious poop being spread around.
Outbreaks are often foodborne because they are highly contagious and transmitted via fecal-oral route.
You become sick with norovirus after touching something an infected person has touched without effectively washing their hands and then eating or touching your own mouth.
It doesn’t take much to become sick either. Health experts say that you can become infected with as few as 10 viral particles. Even trace amounts that you cannot see, taste, or smell can be enough to spread infection.
People begin feeling sick around 12 to 48 hours after exposure. These symptoms can range from mild to so severe that an individual can become seriously dehydrated or require hospitalization to recover from their illness.
Common symptoms include:
Most people recover within a few days (one to three).
But be careful!
You are most contagious and likely to transmit your illness to others while you are actively sick through the first few days of feeling better. However, you can still spread the illness for two weeks (or even longer) after you begin to feel better.
Norovirus may be the invisible risk coating most public surfaces. That door handle? The menu at your favorite restaurant? The elevator button? The pen you borrowed from a co-worker. All potential sources of your next norovirus illness.
So, what can you do to reduce your risk this holiday season and prevent spreading the illness to others?
Frequent handwashing with soap and water can help reduce your risk of norovirus infection. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can be used in a pinch, but they are not completely effective. Use them if you must but wash your hands as soon as you are able to in order to reduce your risk.
Wash your hands before you eat or prepare food for yourself or others. Always wash your hands after you use the restroom, help someone in the restroom, or change a diaper. Wash you hands after you have been in public. Personally, the sink is my first stop when I arrive home. Even though I applied hand sanitizer before entering my car.
Your kitchen and bathroom are two rooms most likely to spread norovirus. You prepare food in the kitchen. And well… You know what you do in the bathroom. Regular cleaning and deep cleaning after someone has been sick can reduce your risk of norovirus and further spread to others.
Produce can enter your home already contaminated with various foodborne germs. Including norovirus. Always thoroughly wash produce before consuming. Particularly if you are eating it raw.
This includes produce with rinds that you don’t intend to eat. Avocados, melons, kiwi. If you are cutting it, the knife can drag surface germs into the consumable flesh within. Don’t skip that important step. Thoroughly wash your produce. You want your holiday meal memorable for the company and conversation, not the subsequent intestinal illness.
Norovirus can contaminate water. The filter-feeding aspect of shellfish means that those norovirus germs can enter their small bodies and contaminate them. When you consume them without heat treatment sufficient to kill those germs, you can become sick. Raw oysters have been the vehicle in many foodborne illness outbreaks. If shellfish are on the menu this holiday season, choose baked, grilled, or fried instead.
You begin feeling sick and recognize the symptoms of norovirus after reading your favorite food safety blog (Make Food Safe).
Now what?
What should you do if you have norovirus symptoms?
If you are experiencing severe symptoms, seek medical attention right away. Norovirus symptoms can result in serious dehydration that may require IV fluids. If you are not sick enough to go to the doctor, it is still a good idea to report your illness to your local health department. If you became sick from a public source, others may have as well. Your information could help a potential outbreak investigation and help prevent others from becoming sick.
If you are part of a cluster of norovirus cases, your food history could help solve the investigation. As soon as you feel well enough to do so, make a list of the foods and drinks you have consumed in the weeks prior to becoming sick. Be as thorough as possible. Include what you ate, where you ate it, and where you got it from. Your list will be compared to others in the outbreak. Where these lists overlap could shed light on the source.
Foodborne illness can be difficult. Lost work, medical bills, caring for a loved one, and other burdens of foodborne illness add up. An experienced norovirus lawyer can help you through this process, point you toward resources, gather evidence, and represent you as needed.
If you have been seriously impacted by your norovirus illness and involved in a outbreak, you may have a legal case.
The Lange Law Firm, PLLC has a norovirus lawyer to help you navigate the legal process.
The Lange Law Firm, PLLC has recovered millions of dollars in food contamination and product liability suits to help cover medical expenses, missed work, and other burdens associated with foodborne illness.
Call (833) 330-3663 or submit your information on the online submission form for a free, no obligation consultation to go over the details of your situation.
By: Heather Van Tassell (contributing writer, non-lawyer)
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