How to prevent Norovirus gastroenteritis during the school season?

The school season is here, and norovirus gastroenteritis is a common infectious disease in schools in spring.

Since vomiting is the most common symptom of norovirus gastroenteritis, the disease is also called "winter vomiting disease."

How is Norovirus acute gastroenteritis spread?

What are the symptoms after infection?

How to prevent it?

Today we will talk about ~

01
What is Norovirus?

Norovirus, formerly known as Norwalk virus, belongs to the Caliciviridae family. The virus has the characteristics of short incubation period, rapid mutation, strong environmental resistance, diverse transmission routes, and low infection dose, so it is easy to spread among the population. Everyone is generally susceptible to the virus. The immune protection produced by human infection with norovirus lasts for a short time, so the same person can be repeatedly infected with the same strain or different types of norovirus. Norovirus infection can occur throughout the year, and October to March of the following year is the peak season for norovirus epidemics. New variants of norovirus that cause global epidemics may appear every 2-3 years.

02
What are the main symptoms of norovirus infection?

The incubation period of norovirus infection is usually 24-48 hours, with a minimum of 12 hours and a maximum of 72 hours.

Norovirus gastroenteritis is generally mild, with vomiting and diarrhea being the most common symptoms, followed by nausea, abdominal pain, headache, fever, chills, and muscle aches. The symptoms of acute norovirus gastroenteritis in adults and children are different, with vomiting being the main symptom in children and diarrhea being the main symptom in adults. Norovirus gastroenteritis generally presents with an acute onset and is a self-limiting disease, with most patients recovering within 2-3 days of onset. However, for infants, young children, and the elderly, especially those with underlying diseases, norovirus gastroenteritis can lead to more serious symptoms such as dehydration.

03
What are the ways to easily get infected with Norovirus?

Norovirus is a highly contagious virus. The feces and vomit of patients with Norovirus gastroenteritis contain a large amount of the virus, which can easily cause infection if not handled properly. It is mainly transmitted through the fecal-oral route, including ingestion of aerosols produced by patient feces or vomitus, or ingestion of food or water contaminated by feces or vomitus, as well as indirect contact with the surface of environmental objects contaminated by feces or vomitus.

04
How should Norovirus gastroenteritis be treated?

Patients with norovirus gastroenteritis do not need to take antibiotics, but should drink water to prevent dehydration. Taking oral rehydration salts (ORS) can help patients replenish water and balance electrolytes. If vomiting or diarrhea symptoms are severe, seek medical attention immediately.

5
How to prevent norovirus infection?

At present, there are no specific antiviral drugs and vaccines for Norovirus, and its prevention and control mainly use non-drug preventive measures.

1 Maintaining good hand hygiene is the most important and effective measure to prevent norovirus infection and control the spread of norovirus. Wash your hands correctly according to the 6-step hand washing method before and after meals, using soap and running water for at least 20 seconds. It should be noted that disinfectant wipes and rinse-free hand disinfectants cannot replace hand washing (according to standard procedures).

Wash your hands after using the restroom, changing diapers, caring for patients, touching animals or cleaning animal feces, handling uncooked food, wiping your nose, coughing or sneezing, handling garbage, using public transportation or facilities, etc. Wash your hands before preparing or distributing food, eating, caring for patients, etc.

2 If a family member is infected with norovirus, the sick family member should try not to have close contact with other healthy family members, especially not to cook or take care of the elderly and infants. 3 Wash fruits and vegetables carefully, cook food correctly, especially foods with high risk of infection with norovirus, such as shellfish and seafood, should be cooked thoroughly. 4 During the illness, patients with norovirus gastroenteritis should be actively isolated at home until 2 days after the symptoms completely disappear (because the patient still has a small amount of detoxification after the symptoms completely disappear), to avoid infecting other people, especially those working in the service industry and collective institutions, such as chefs, caregivers, and school and kindergarten teachers. 5 When a cluster or outbreak of norovirus gastroenteritis occurs, comprehensive disinfection should be carried out, focusing on the disinfection of environmental object surfaces, daily necessities, food processing tools, drinking water, etc. contaminated by pollutants such as vomit and feces of patients. The most commonly used disinfectants are chlorine-containing disinfectants.

06
How to disinfect the vomit and feces of patients?

Use gauze, rags and other disposable absorbent materials soaked in chlorine-containing disinfectant (effective chlorine concentration is 5000mg/L~10000mg/L) to completely cover the pollutants and carefully clean them. The pollutants cleaned up should be disposed of as medical waste, or soaked in a disinfectant containing 5000mg/L of effective chlorine for 30 minutes before processing. A sufficient amount of chlorine-containing disinfectant (effective chlorine concentration is 5000 mg/L~10000mg/L) can be poured into the toilet bowl and acted for more than 30 minutes. Mops, rags and other tools used in cleaning, as well as containers for pollutants, must be soaked in a disinfectant containing 5000mg/L of effective chlorine for 30 minutes and then thoroughly rinsed before they can be used again. Mops used to clean toilets and bathrooms in collective units should be dedicated.

(Source: Institute of Viral Diseases, Department of Infectious Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention)