New norovirus bug sweeps nation

A new strain of norovirus accounted for 58% of the reported cases of what some people call "stomach flu" last month.

As if this year's robust flu season weren't enough, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports today that a new strain of the vomiting disease norovirus has reached the USA from Australia. Last month, the bug, which causes nausea, forceful vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain, accounted for 58% of outbreaks of norovirus nationally.

It's not clear whether this strain is more likely to infect people or make them more ill than previous strains, but according to Aron Hall, an epidemiologist with the CDC's division of viral diseases, any time a new strain emerges, it has the potential to increase disease "because people haven't been exposed to it before, so they're more susceptible."

Norovirus typically begins very suddenly and lasts one to three days. Most people recover without treatment, but some require rehydration with liquids or intravenous fluids. The disease is most severe in the elderly and can also hit young children hard. Every year, more than 21 million Americans become infected with acute stomach bugs, called gastroenteritis by doctors, and approximately 800 die, according to the CDC. Much of that is probably from norovirus, Hall said.

The new strain was first detected in Australia last March and has caused outbreaks in several other countries. From September through December, it was the leading cause of norovirus outbreaks in the USA, according to this week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the CDC. Norovirus mutates rapidly, and new strains are common, typically showing up every two or three years, said Jan Vinjé, director of CaliciNet, an outbreak surveillance network for noroviruses in the USA.

Norovirus is extremely contagious. The best protection is vigilant hand washing with soap and water. If surfaces may have been contaminated, the CDC recommends disinfecting them with a diluted bleach solution made of five to 25 tablespoons of household bleach to a gallon of water.

Yes... It's been going through our school.

yuck!

Last year, I came down with norovirus the night before I left on vacation. It was the most horrendous and disgusting thing I've ever endured. (Basically, you spend 8 hours running at both ends - sometimes simultaneously.)

I got on the plane the next morning, but only because I'd stopped spewing by that point, and it would have cost half the value of my ticket to change the flight. It was not a very fun vacation, though. I barely ate anything for five days.

I leave for Arizona next week. I am staying away from people as much as I can and preparing all my own food. I also bought trip insurance this time. I ain't takin' any chances.

kewlschool said:

Awww man, you were too nice. Imago is NOT stacked like that!

LadyCasanova said:

kewlschool said:

Awww man, you were too nice. Imago is NOT stacked like that!

Genesia said:

Last year, I came down with norovirus the night before I left on vacation. It was the most horrendous and disgusting thing I've ever endured. (Basically, you spend 8 hours running at both ends - sometimes simultaneously.)

I got on the plane the next morning, but only because I'd stopped spewing by that point, and it would have cost half the value of my ticket to change the flight. It was not a very fun vacation, though. I barely ate anything for five days.

I leave for Arizona next week. I am staying away from people as much as I can and preparing all my own food. I also bought trip insurance this time. I ain't takin' any chances.

I feel ya. I had that one year. I had to keep a bucket by the toilet for those simultaneous occurences. Fortunately it only lasted a day.

‘20 years left’ to halt the superbug apocalypse

Thursday 24 Jan 2013 10:01 pm

For some infections there is only one effective antibiotic left to treat them (Picture: Getty)

The world is facing an apocalyptic threat from resistant superbugs which is more serious than global warming, Britain’s top health official has said.

For some infections, such as gonorrhoea, there is only one effective antibiotic left to treat them, chief medical officer Prof Dame Sally Davies told MPs.

There are few new treatments on the horizon and the situation is so grave it should be considered a civil emergency, she told a Commons committee.

Prof Davies said: ‘It is clear that we might not ever see global warming. But the apocalyptic scenario is that when I need a new hip in 20 years, I’ll die from a routine infection because we’ve run out of antibiotics.’

Warning: Prof Dame Sally Davies (Picture: Getty)

The widespread use of antibiotics from the 1940s has transformed modern healthcare.

But doctors have long been warning that bacteria are becoming immune to 21st century medicines, creating superbugs such as MRSA, as well as strains of E. coli, tuberculosis and gonorrhoea.

Prof Davies described the production of new antibiotics as ‘an empty pipeline’ so patients would die from once treatable infections.

Microbiologist Prof Laura Piddock told Metro doctors should resist pressure to give out antibiotics. ‘We’re really only keeping the wolf from the door while we wait for new drugs,’ she added.

Bacteria are becoming immune to 21st century medicines (Picture: Getty)

When the drugs don’t work, what can we do?

Antibiotics have been one of the greatest success stories in medicine. But when drugs cease to work, doctors face a monumental battle to stem infection.

Scientists in the US resorted to tracking the DNA of a lethal strain of bacteria – klebsiella pneumoniae – after drugs and tight quarantine procedures failed to stop a superbug spreading rapidly in a hospital.

Eleven people died after a woman with the bug was admitted to the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, in Maryland, in 2011. It was only when computer analyst Evan Snitkin, 31, sequenced the bacteria – like a family tree – to see how it spread, that doctors beat the outbreak.

Harnessing viruses that kill bacteria may also be a cure.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/01/24/20-years-left-to-halt-the-superbug-apocalypse-3366369/

In other news, it still really, really hurts when I pee.

CaptainChaos said:

In other news, it still really, really hurts when I pee.

You'd better go get you clap trap!