Meet the Virus That Makes the Flu Look Like a Cakewalk

It was Christmas Eve 2008 when Sal Cardoni first started to feel truly horrible. He'd helped take care of his cousin's infant son for a short time, and within hours he was sleeping on the bathroom floor, too ill to go to bed. "I started to get sick just after midnight," remembers Cardoni, an editor in Los Angeles. "Around 3 a.m. my dad brought me a blanket and pillow in the bathroom." Cardoni had come down with norovirus, which he'd contracted from the baby. "So starting at midnight on Christmas, I was sick and vomiting through the next day and well into the evening of the 26th," he says. "I wasn't back to 100 percent until almost New Year's." Though Cardoni tried his best not to pass along the highly contagious virus, his mom and a cousin ended up sick as well.?

Not everyone is coughing and sniffling from this winter's miserable strain of flu. Like Cardoni, some people are doubled over with stomach cramps and nausea thanks to a?new strain of norovirus?a classic gastrointestinal virus that causes vomiting and diarrhea?that's circulating in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Public health officials told TakePart they're watching the illness carefully because it has the hallmarks of being a particularly bad strain.

The Importance of Washing Hands: Wash Your Hands, Save a Life

Norovirus is best known for ruining people's vacations with outbreaks on cruise ships. The virus is highly contagious, so a confined space?like a ship is a perfect target for it to spread. But it's a mistake to think this is a cruise-ship illness only, says Dr. Aron Hall, of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.?"We hear a lot about norovirus on cruise ships causing outbreaks, but that is not the most common place we see it," he says. "That makes up fewer than five percent of the cases reported in the U.S. By far, the most common places we see norovirus outbreaks are nursing homes and hospitals."

From there, the viruses easily spread into communities. "These viruses are spread efficiently through a variety of means," he says. "But they are quite adept at spreading from direct person-to-person contact."

Flu is Packing a Punch Across the Nation

The new strain of norovirus is called GII.4 Sydney. That?s important because there are five main types of norovirus and the GII.4 subgroup is typically the worst of the lot. It's not clear yet whether GII.4 Sydney causes more severe illness than other norovirus strains, but it has already unleashed its fury in Australia and the United Kingdom and no one there is singing its praises.

"Every few years in the last decade a new strain of norovirus emerges and sometimes when it emerges it can cause a real increase in outbreaks," Hall says. "That's why we track new viruses in circulation and send out public health alerts. We've seen it widespread throughout the country." (There?s currently no vaccine for the virus, but researchers are working on one.)

"It's not clear yet if this is a more severe strain," adds Dr. Eyal Leshem, an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the CDC. "The peak of the season typically occurs in January." Even in a typical year, norovirus causes 20 million cases of illness, 70,000 hospitalizations, and 800 deaths. While anyone can become infected, complications are typically the most severe in the very young or very old or people with other health problems.

Norovirus usually spreads from direct contact. That's why the best way to prevent it is to wash your hands a lot with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds, Leshem says. ("That's about the time it takes to [sing] 'Happy Birthday' twice," he instructs.)

New SARS-Like Virus Reported in the Middle East

But, Hall cautions, "The spread is typically through that direct oral route?[what?s called] aerosolization. Some particles of vomit can float through the air for a few feet and settle on the surfaces that someone touches or that can be inhaled." If you're not convinced just how far the virus can travel, check out "Vomiting Larry," an invention from the United Kingdom's Health and Safety Laboratory. Scientists created a kind of vomiting robot to demonstrate how contagious a norovirus can be. "Larry" stands about five feet tall and has a fluid-filled cylinder stomach that contains a fluorescent dye. When the fluid is ejected from Larry's mouth, UV lighting shows just where droplets land. Studies show some fly about ten feet away.

Do you wash your hands religiously to stave off the flu and other illnesses? Have you had the flu or norovirus this year?

Related Stories on TakePart:

? Viruses Can't Hide from This Guy

? Can We Build an Early Warning System for Pandemics??

? Researchers Are Closing In On a Way to Predict Flu Outbreaks

Shari Roan is an award-winning health writer based in Southern California. She is the author of three books on health and science subjects.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/meet-virus-makes-flu-look-cakewalk-214801948.html

Phelps NBC Olympics Live Olympic medal count Medal Count 2012 London 2012 Fencing olympics chariots of fire