Tuesday February 21, 2012
Healthcare facilities, including nursing homes and hospitals,
are the most commonly reported settings for norovirus outbreaks in
the United States. The virus can be introduced into healthcare
facilities by infected patients/residents--who may or may not be
showing symptoms--or by staff, visitors, or contaminated food
products. Outbreaks in these settings can be quite long-sometimes
lasting months-and illness can be more severe, occasionally even
fatal, in hospitalized or nursing home patients than for otherwise
healthy persons.
Noroviruses are responsible for about half of all reported
outbreaks of gastroenteritis (vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach
cramping caused by inflammation of the stomach and intestines).
While the vast majority of norovirus illnesses are not part of a
recognized cluster, outbreaks provide important information on how
the virus is spread and, therefore, how best to prevent
infection. Norovirus outbreaks occur throughout the year, but
over 80% of them occur during November-April. In addition,
norovirus outbreaks tend to increase periodically when new strains
of the virus appear. The virus can be spread through food, water,
by touching things that have the virus on them, as well as directly
from person to person. There is no long-lasting immunity to
norovirus; thus, outbreaks can affect people of all ages and in a
variety of settings
Due to the recently reported outbreaks of the norovirus in Long
Term Care and Assisted Living facilities we have attached several
CDC norovirus related documents.
For more information we encourage you to visit the CDC web
site at: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/gastro/norovirus.htm
Norovirus-Guideline for Healthcare Settings-2011
Norovirus Worksheet
Norovirus Poster
Norovirus Comm Framework
Norovirus Case Fact Sheet
NoroVirus-Management of Outbreaks in Healthcare Settings