Here’s another article from Maggie Fox at NBC News on norovirus — the gastrointestinal virus that is causing a lot of concern from the CDC and other public health experts:
“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.
This is a very contagious and severe infection:
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.
Read article at NBC News here.