New York City hit by stomach flu

New York City, November 7: The Health Department has reported the outbreak of norovirus, a distinct and contagious stomach flu in New York City. The virus that comes each fall has spiked in recent weeks.

According to the surveillance team the emergency in hospitals are flooded with complaints of vomiting and diarrhea. The number of people suffering from the infection has jumped from 300 per day to nearly 500 since November.

The seasonal illness that does the rounds across the nation in winter is not caused by the influenza. Its prevalence is attributed to a virus that gets into the digestive system. A common enough ailment, it is caused primarily by germs which enter the body through the mouth.

The virus causes inflammation in the lining of the stomach and intestine. As a result food passes through them without proper digestion. It lasts about one to three days. Sometimes a patient may take about 2 weeks to recover, depending on the severity of the infection.

The spread of the virus is through direct contact, like shaking hands, kissing, sharing eating utensils, food or even bumping into some infected person in a crowded place.

“Norovirus infection is miserable experience and can be serious if you become dehydrated,” said Dr Sharon Balter, a medical epidemiologist at the Health Department.

The best way to combat stomach flu is by preventing it through personal hygiene, which involves washing hands before meals and after going to the bath room. Household surfaces should be disinfected and fresh and hygienic food consumed.

Since it is highly infectious, it can spread in group settings. School children and parents need to be cautious. Doctor Balter warns “if you get sick with diarrhea or vomiting, stay at home so that you don’t spread the infection to others, keeping sick kids home or day care is especially important.”

Stomach flu is not a serious ailment. Its common symptoms are nausea, cramps, fever, chill, aches and tiredness. It can be cured quickly if certain precautions are adhered to. Since it involves loss of fluids, intake of liquids should be increased in the diet to compensate for fluid loss to prevent dehydration.

They emergency department data, is the only source of information about the neroviral infection for the health department. The health officials proposed all laboratories to report the viral cases to help them monitor the virus trends, and come up with measures to tackle the existing problem.