Norovirus Lawyer & Attorney : Marler Clark : Norovirus Blog

Twenty-three people who arrived on the Rocky Mountaineer train from Calgary to Vancouver were quarantined in their rooms at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler yesterday with Norovirus symptoms.

Public health officials confirmed the guests of the pricy hotel were being kept in their rooms. The sick were members of a 100-member tour group from the Brisbane area in Australia.

Dr. Paul Martiquet, public health officer with Vancouver Coastal Health, said on Monday that some members of another, similar tour group from the same area also came down with the virus last week.

Martiquet confirmed that the Chateau guests had Norwalk or Norovirus virus. Healthy members of the Australian tour group were allowed to move on to the Empress Hotel in Victoria.

For more, go here.

The virus usually takes about 24 hours to run its course, and as with many viruses, frequent handwashing is key to preventing contracting it from others, Martiquet said.

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 A norovirus outbreak at the Columbus, GA-based Gardens at Calvary means people will have to limit their visits to the long-term care facility.

Several residents at the Gardens are ill with norovirus. The voluntary limit on the number of visitors entering the home took effect last week as control measures were implemented.

The Gardens at Calvary is located on Moon Road in Columbus.  The local health department issued the following information to the public:

Noroviruses are found in the stool or vomit of infected people. People can become infected with the virus in several ways, including:

• eating food or drinking liquids that are contaminated with norovirus;
• touching surfaces or objects contaminated with norovirus, and then placing their hand in their mouth;
• having direct contact with another person who is infected and showing symptoms (for example, when caring for someone with illness, or sharing foods or eating utensils with someone who is ill).

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Up in the most northwest corner of the United States, officials at the Eagle Creek Elementary School in Arlington, WA are happy to be sending in the cleaning crews to scrub things down.

That's because the 100 students and staff who got sick at the school have Norovirus, not the Swine Flu. It's just another reminder that the Norovirus season is not over yet.

The Snohomish County Health District says about 20 percent of the elementary school's student body plus some staff members are ill.  They are suffering all the Norovirus symptoms including  nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps. Symptoms typically last one to two days

The Everett Herald has a story here.

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We recently were contacted by a woman who posted about her cruising experience on her blog, The Savvy Old Lady's Cruising & Travel Tips.  Here is an excerpt of her blog post about a recent cruise trip she took. 

For the next three days countless PA announcements, many by the Captain himself, were made, especially at meal times, about the necessity of washing your hands before each meal. Necessary, yes, but somehow a little disconcerting when you were eating your lunch and listening to someone talking on the PA about the symptoms of Norovirus and Norwalk like virus, namely diarrhea and vomiting. There were many areas that were closed for at least three to four days or the entire cruise. They included part of the Windjammer, the twenty-four hour pizza, sandwich and desert bar. Some areas, such as Johnny Rockets, a wonderful hamburger and milk shake restaurant and the arcade (there was a special concern about children and teens and hand washing) were close for the entire voyage. Passengers were not permitted to remove food from the Windjammer or dining rooms so we could not eat on the open decks or bring food to our rooms (room service did operate normally though after the second day). We were told the reason for this was so the crew would know where all the food was going. Well big surprise all the revenue center food and beverage outlets (coffee shop, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream shop and the bars) on board permitted you to take food out. Hmmm, doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines was losing money on this cruise and I suppose that they had to make the revenue up for it somewhere.

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