Posted on 01/02/2008 7:00:45 PM PST by blam
GPs urge millions hit by bug to stay at home
By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor and Aislinn Simpson
Last Updated: 2:14am GMT 03/01/2008
Doctors' leaders warned people struck down by a violent stomach bug sweeping the country not to return to work as GPs reported that they were being inundated by sufferers.
More than 100,000 people a week are catching norovirus, which causes sudden vomiting and diarrhoea, and the numbers contracting the disease will peak this month.
The NHS advises patients affected to stay at home for 48 hours after they last suffered the symptoms
Thousands of workers and children who fell ill over the holiday period are due to return to jobs and classrooms in the coming days. Many have already called in sick and doctors warn them not to go back until they are fully recovered, such is the risk of spreading the disease.
Patients affected should stay at home for 48 hours after they last suffered the symptoms, the NHS advised. The absences will cost the economy millions of pounds.
So far this winter about two million people have fallen ill with norovirus, the highest number for five years and double the amount of cases by this time last year.
Doctors warned people with the condition to stay away from GPs' surgeries and hospitals and to phone for advice to avoid further spread.
NHS Direct reported that vomiting and diarrhoea was one of the top five complaints that patients had called about in the past two months.
The bug usually lasts two days and can sweep through schools, offices, hospitals and prisons. It has struck passengers on the Queen Victoria cruise ship and cases have been found in more than a dozen hospitals.
Dr Steve Field, the chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said its surveillance unit in Birmingham confirmed that cases were the highest since the 2002 epidemic.
Dr Field, a GP in Birmingham, said: "I know hospitals have been inundated by referrals and through casualty and local GPs are seeing a lot more of it.
"People are at home with it over the holiday, which is the best place for them, then next week the schools go back and you get a child outbreak and the children go home and give it to their parents." He said the best thing to do was stay at home, take paracetamol, drink plenty of fluids and call the GP for advice.
The norovirus season began a month early, with cases across Europe and America by October.
Dr Mike Sadler, the NHS Direct chief operating officer, said calls for advice began earlier than normal and it has consistently been one of the top five illnesses that patients have contacted it about.
The disease can cost the NHS up to £100 million in an epidemic year as operations are cancelled when patients are struck down and agency staff have to cover staff sickness.
A report from the Health Protection Agency, which monitors the disease, said: "The number of cases reported this year surpasses all other recent years, except 2002, which was the most severe season recorded and was associated with the emergence of a new virus type.
"Outbreaks affect health care facilities worldwide and may cause massive disruption to providing care, substantial economic loss, and, according to some reports, mortality in vulnerable patient populations."
Alastair Henderson, the director of NHS Employers, which finds staff for the NHS - Britain's biggest employer - said: "Obviously this is a problem for all employers and it does appear there is more of it about this year.
"In hospitals it is particularly important that people who are ill or contagious do not come in to work to ensure others are not infected."
Economists say the country could lose £12 million a week from workers contracting the virus. Since October, the total loss is estimated at £234 million.
It’s always something.
Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.
Pay the bill on your way out.
OK, what is that in the foreground of that picture?
Laptop and a pillow?
28 Days Later...
Box of kleenex, pillow
Barf!
YOU’RE SICK!! DO NOT COME TO THE DOCTOR OR HOSPITAL! STAY AWAY!!
?????????????
From Wikipedia:
Norwalk viruses from Genogroup II, genotype 4 (abbreviated as GII.4) account for the majority of adult outbreaks of gastroenteritis and often sweep across the globe.
Recent examples include US95/96-US strain, associated with global outbreaks in the mid- to late-90s, Farmington Hills virus associated with outbreaks in Europe and the United States in 2002 and in 2004 Hunter virus was associated with outbreaks in Europe, Japan and Australasia.
Last year (2006) there was another large increase in NoV infection around the globe.
In December, 2007 there was an outbreak at a country club in northern California where around 80-100 people got sick.
Two new GII.4 variants caused around 80% of those Norovirus associated outbreaks and they have been termed 2006a and 2006b.
That nasty thing went through my whole family early last year - spaced out so at least one was well enough to care for others.
Not fun.
“YOU’RE SICK!! DO NOT COME TO THE DOCTOR OR HOSPITAL! STAY AWAY!!”
That’s the sensible thing with a very contagious virus like norovirus (used to be called Norwalk Group Virus). If you get a hundred people through your clinic with noro, the fifty who come in with hangnails will be back in 24 hours with noro.
Entire cruise ships and summer camps get this, it makes sense to keep them away from public gathering points.
It was reported last year that Norovirus hits O blood type harder than other blood types. This nasty bug caused a cytokine storm in my oldest daughter and almost killed her. If anyone contracts this and starts having any difficulty breathing get to the hospital fast.
The highest concentration of people with 'O' type blood are those behind Offa's Dyke.
We could have more than a million cases, but if it’s not foodborne it’s not recorded.
CDC did a special study on elder healthcare facilities, where the vector was believed to be person-to-person, but in general it’s not tracked!
I can recall reports of summer camps with AGE, and more than a few cruise ships where 80% get it.
We do monitor OTC drug purchases (this report is for NYC but there is a national system too) to detect outbreaks of certain things (nausea and diarrhea meds would spike in a norovirus outbreak) but I can’t yet access the data to see the extent of the problem here.
Norovirus: Q&A [excerpt]
How do people become infected with noroviruses?
Noroviruses are found in the stool or vomit of infected people. People can become infected with the virus in several ways, including:
* eating food or drinking liquids that are contaminated with norovirus;
* touching surfaces or objects contaminated with norovirus, and then placing their hand in their mouth;
* having direct contact with another person who is infected and showing symptoms (for example, when caring for someone with illness, or sharing foods or eating utensils with someone who is ill).
That’s the sensible thing with a very contagious virus like norovirus (used to be called Norwalk Group Virus). If you get a hundred people through your clinic with noro, the fifty who come in with hangnails will be back in 24 hours with noro.
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It’s the self diagnosis of that ‘it must be the noro virus’ that is dangerous.
I think the NHS requested people to call in rather than visit, so they still talk to a GP or nurse or whatever they have in the UK.
I’ve been to clinics in California where they have special waiting rooms for people suspected of having a contagious disease (influenza in my case). I stood the whole time I waited with my hands in my pockets! I had no idea what the other people waiting in the “special area” had and did NOT want to take it home with me! Norwalk on top of flu would have been an experience to be avoided.
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