A few steps can help prevent the spread of stomach bugs on a cruise ship, according to a study published online today by the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Don't board if you're already sick. Seek help if you get ill
Posted in: ARTICLESNorwalk like viruses (NLV)
Norwalk-like viruses (NLVs) cause outbreaks of gastroenteritis and are spread frequently through contaminated food or water. Molecular diagnostics now enables detecting viruses in clinical and environmental specimens, linking of NLV strains causing outbreaks in multiple geographic locations, and tracing them to their sources in contaminated food or water. This report reviews recent advances in NLV detection and provides guidelines and recommendations for investigating NLV-related outbreaks, including specimen collection and disease prevention and control. This report also updates information provided in CDC's previously published, Viral Agents of Gastroenteritis: Public Health Importance and Outbreak Management (MMWR 1990;39 [No. RR-5]:1--24). These CDC recommendations are intended for public health professionals who investigate outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis but could be useful in academic and research settings as well.
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Norovirus Infections
What is a norovirus?
Noroviruses are a group of related viruses that cause acute gastroenteritis, sometimes called the stomach flu, in humans. In more technical terms, noroviruses are single-stranded RNA, nonenveloped viruses. Their genetic information is encoded in a single strand of RNA and they lack an envelope.
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Norovirus: Outbreaks on Land, Sea
Major outbreaks of Norwalk-like virus that have infected 700 people in Boston provide the latest evidence that the nasty stomach bug that sickened so many cruise ship passengers is hardly limited to the high seas.
In fact, experts say, the gastrointestinal illness is much more prevalent on land.
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Sea Sickness: Despite cleaner cruises, diarrhea outbreaks persist
Cruise ships are cleaner than they used to be, but their standard sanitation practices don't reliably wipe out the viruses behind a recent wave of diarrheal outbreaks, according to new reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Halting viral epidemics on ships may require unusually rigorous measures, such as docking stricken vessels for extreme scrub downs.
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Sick from my cruise: Norovirus is all around us
If you're a breathing human being, chances are you've eaten it.
The intestinal ailment dubbed the Norwalk virus is so common that 23 million Americans ó one in 10 ó suffer from its symptoms each year.
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Viral gastroenteritis outbreaks in Europe 1995-2000
To gain understanding of surveillance and epidemiology of viral gastroenteritis outbreaks in Europe, we compiled data from 10 surveillance systems in the Foodborne Viruses in Europe network. Established surveillance systems found Norovirus to be responsible for >85% (N=3,714) of all nonbacterial outbreaks of gastroenteritis reported from 1995 to 2000. However, the absolute number and population-based rates of viral gastroenteritis outbreaks differed markedly among European surveillance systems. A wide range of estimates of the importance of foodborne transmission were also found. We review these differences within the context of the sources of outbreak surveillance information, clinical definitions, and structures of the outbreak surveillance systems.
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