Norovirus Lawyer & Attorney : Marler Clark : Norovirus Blog

We are certain we could greatly up the number of hits on this blog if we re-named it "Swine Flu Rumors," but that would be wrong.

However, we have seen and for a time will continue to see national reporters asking federal health officials about rumors of Swine Flu that are in fact nothing more than our old friend, the Norovirus.

Take UOP in Des Plaines, IL for example. Its a manufacturing technology company and 46 of its workers were suddenly out with flu-like symptoms.

A Cook County Department of Public Health investigation found all were down with Norovirus and it was traced to an ill food worker.

So it was food-borne illness, and rumors of Swine Flu were proved to be unfounded.

Still we have brought it up, here are the latest Swine Flu numbers for the United States along with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) statement from this morning:

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Going into last weekend, California's Yolo County Health Department went public with the news that the city of Davis is experiencing an outbreak of norovirus with 70 already ill. We cannot say whether Yolo County got the word out early or late Friday, but we suspect late because it really did not show up in the news until this morning. According to Yolo County:

Health officials are providing targeted community education to control the outbreak. “Norovirus can be contained fairly quickly when control measures are started and maintained consistently,” states Bruce Sarazin, Director of the Yolo County Health Department Environmental Health Division. The Health Department has provided Norovirus control guidelines to all affected institutions, businesses, and individuals and will closely monitor the situation.

Maybe the "targeted community education" would have been more effective if Yolo County had not wasted the weekend in getting the word out.    Go here for the story in today's Woodland Daily Democrat.   And, remember to be careful out there.   The norovirus season is not over yet.

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 Shaw Hall, a central cafeteria and dorm on the Michigan State University campus, is the latest victim of a norovirus outbreak. About 30 MSU students got the vomit disease.

The Shaw Hall cafeteria is closed until at least Saturday morning, said university spokesperson Jason Cody.  According to the Detroit Free Press:

Ingham County Health Department Medical Director Dean Sienko said the department had a hunch it was norovirus, and started their control measures ahead of the lab results, which he said gives them the advantage over the virus.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Sienko said. “We know at least what our enemy is.” A few more students have appeared at Sparrow Hospital today, he said, but nothing like the mass of students that flooded the emergency room Wednesday, starting at 1:30 a.m.

Sienko said this outbreak is not food-related. Norovirus is spread easily by contact with infected individuals, sharing their food or drink, or contacting surfaces contaminated by the virus.

Cody said disinfection procedures are also in place at dorms besides Shaw Hall where sick students lived.

For more from the Free Press, go here.

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Babson College is calling students back to classes after a norovirus outbreak that made dozens of students ill at the Wellesley campus during the last week.

All regular and extracurricular activities were being held Wednesday, according to Babson spokesman Michael Chmura.
How many students actually returned to classes was not known.

Chmura said students who had experienced symptoms of the virus within the last 48 hours were advised to stay in their dorms and not return to classes.

Through Tuesday night, Babson was reporting that 83 students had visited campus Health Services since the outbreak began, while 42 students had called to report symptoms. Some faculty and staff members also became ill.

For more, go here.

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