Norovirus reaches epidemic levels

"The winter vomiting bug norovirus has struck 2.8million people, with health professionals braced for another rise as people return to schools and offices."
This is a news snippet from the TIMES (UK)

Is this only happening in the UK, if so why?

Why is it just this year, in fact I have never heard of this bug until this winter.

Where has it come from?

reply to post by gingern


I am pretty sure this bug made the rounds here in the US as well. Several people I know across the country had it sweep through their families. None got any "official" diagnosis from a doctor, but the symptoms were all the same.

When I had "what I think is this virus", it was like no other illness I have ever had before in my life. The most violent vomiting that I could have imagined. Trust me, I used to "tie one on" from time to time and have done more than my share of "praying to the porcelain god", but this was on another level. Add to it the projectile diarrhea at the same time and it is just a very unpleasant experience. I NEVER want to get it again.

Last summer it killed several old people in some local retirement homes. That was the first that I had heard of it.

I may be wrong but I believe it is another name for the Norwalk virus that they always mention in connection with cruise ships, and the reason why people have not heard of it before is because the press accounts didn't use the term NOROVIRUS in previous years.

Thanks for the reply.

So you have seen it and had it last year then. sounds bad.

In the artical the health authority talk about it happening every year. It seems to me there is a bit of dis-imformation going on. Like I said I have never heard of it before.

I wonder why this has been blown out of all proportion ??

Its like influenza, sure its going to kill a couple thousand people a year in a given population, which is perfectly normal...

When it kills 100's of thousands of people, lets start getting concerned...or even 10's of thousands...

Overkill if you ask me

Peace

Noroviruses (genus Norovirus, family Caliciviridae) are a group of related, single-stranded RNA, nonenveloped viruses that cause acute gastroenteritis in humans. Norovirus was recently approved as the official genus name for the group of viruses provisionally described as “Norwalk-like viruses” (NLV). This group of viruses has also been referred to as caliciviruses (because of their virus family name) and as small round structured viruses, or SRSVs (because of their morphologic features). Another genus of the calicivirus family that can cause gastroenteritis in humans is Sapovirus, formerly described as “Sapporo-like virus” (SLV) and sometimes referred to as classic or typical calicivirus.

Noroviruses are named after the original strain “Norwalk virus,” which caused an outbreak of gastroenteritis in a school in Norwalk, Ohio, in 1968. Currently, there are at least five norovirus genogroups (GI, GII, GIII, GIV and GV), which in turn are divided into at least 31 genetic clusters.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

So it looks like its been known about since 1968. The name Norovirus was approved by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses in 2002.

For some stats about this virus, visit here.