Norovirus ravages Taiwan, 140,000 people vomit and diarrhea a week -- antibacterial and antiviral has a long way to go

According to Sina's "Financial Headlines" report in 2023: Taiwan has recently been plagued by norovirus, and 140,000 people have seen emergency departments for diarrhea in a week. Autumn and winter are the active period of norovirus, and vomiting and diarrhea will occur within three days of infection, and most patients will get better after 7-10 days. In the past, there was a three-year-long ravages of the new coronavirus, and now there is a wave of norovirus. In the post-epidemic era, human beings have a long way to go to protect their own health with antibacterial and antiviral work!

What is Norovirus?

Norovirus, also known as norovirus, is a virus that causes nonbacterial acute gastroenteritis. The virus was first identified in 1968 in a mass acute gastroenteritis outbreak at an elementary school in Novak Township, United States. Since then, the virus has frequently endemic countries around the world, causing a large number of mass cases of acute gastroenteritis. In August 2002, the International Committee on Nomenclature of Viruses uniformly renamed norovirus as norovirus.

Norovirus is an RNA virus (Class 1 virus), along with SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, Delta, Omicron, SARS, HIV, and H1N1 influenza viruses. Compared with DNA viruses, RNA viruses are more likely to cause disease, more lethal to the host, and more prone to mutation, so there are more types of viruses, and it is more difficult to develop effective vaccines to prevent them. Therefore, infectious diarrhea caused by "norovirus" is a self-limiting disease, and there is no vaccine or specific drug.

Norovirus infectious diarrhea is endemic worldwide and can occur throughout the year, mainly in adults and school-age children, with a high incidence during the cold season. Norovirus is responsible for 60% to 90% of all nonbacterial diarrhea outbreaks in the United States each year. Developed countries such as Netherlands, United Kingdom, Japan and Australia have similar results. The detection rate of norovirus in children under 5 years of age with diarrhea in China is about 15%, and the survey of serum antibody levels shows that norovirus infection is very common in the Chinese population. Therefore, it is particularly important and urgent to prevent and contain the spread and infection of norovirus in China (including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, etc.).

Symptoms at onset

The common symptoms of norovirus can be divided into two categories: mild cases and severe cases.

Clinical manifestations of mild cases

The most common symptoms are vomiting and diarrhea, followed by nausea, abdominal pain, headache, fever, chills, and muscle aches. Studies have compared diarrhoea and vomiting symptoms in different age groups. Diarrhoea was found to be more common in adults (72%) and vomiting was more common in children than adults (81%). The study also found that most mild cases had nausea, vomiting, and fever only on the first day of illness, but that diarrhoea lasted longer.

"Clinical manifestations of severe cases

Although norovirus infection is predominantly self-limiting, many cases can progress to severe disease and even death. For example, in the Nordic region, 82 cases of community-acquired norovirus infection (mean age 77 years) died in 7% of patients within one month. After newborns are infected with norovirus, in addition to symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, and chills, serious complications such as necrotizing enterocolitis may also occur.

Characteristics of norovirus

1. A high incidence of infectious viruses

According to the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention in September 2020, more than 30 outbreaks of norovirus disease were reported across the country that month, involving about 1,500 cases. Statistics show that about 900,000 children under the age of 5 seek medical treatment for norovirus infection in developed countries every year, while 11 million children are hospitalized and 218,000 die each year due to norovirus infection in developing countries. This time, 140,000 people in Taiwan were infected with norovirus in a week, which shows how contagious it is.

2. The virus has strong environmental resistance

Norovirus has strong environmental resistance, and can survive in the temperature range of 0°C-60°C, especially on contaminated walls, tables and chairs, sanitary ware and other objects, its survival period can reach 2 weeks, and it can survive in water for more than 2 months. Alcohol and hand sanitizers commonly used for disinfection do not work against norovirus inactivation.

3. The incubation period of the virus is short and the transmission rate is fast

Generally, 12-48 hours after norovirus infection, symptoms of virulence appear. Sweden analysed data on an outbreak of foodborne transmission involving 30 childcare and school-age childcare facilities, with an incubation period ranging from 2 hours to 61 hours. In addition, an average of 1 infected person can transmit the disease to 2.62-3.74 people during the infection period, which is 1.5-2 times more transmissible than bacillary dysentery and influenza.

How norovirus is transmitted

1. Contact Communication

People can get infected with the virus as long as they come into contact with objects or surfaces contaminated with norovirus. Therefore, contact transmission is an important way for norovirus to spread and infect on a large scale. In particular, the speed of transmission is even more alarming in public places where people gather, such as offices, business premises, hospitals, schools, and kindergartens. Therefore, in order to prevent the spread of norovirus, we must pay attention to the antibacterial and antiviral surfaces of indoor walls and other objects and objects, just as we can prevent the new coronavirus and its mutant strains, so as to isolate the contact transmission of the virus

2Aerosol propagation

Aerosol transmission: Another important way of norovirus aerosol transmission is caused by inhaling microparticles such as PM2.5 floating in the air containing norovirus. The first way to curb the aerosol transmission of norovirus is to effectively degrade and remove the virus-carrying microparticles suspended in indoor air.

How can I protect against norovirus?

Wash your hands: Especially before eating, cooking, and after going to the toilet, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water;

Use sterilization air disinfection purifiers: Today's air purifiers are not only limited to the function of removing formaldehyde and haze, more purifier manufacturers pay attention to the function of sterilization and virus removal, so the use of air purifiers can reduce the spread of viruses to a certain extent, which is an important choice for parents.

Norovirus ravages Taiwan, 140,000 people vomit and diarrhea a week -- antibacterial and antiviral has a long way to go

Norovirus ravages Taiwan, 140,000 people vomit and diarrhea a week -- antibacterial and antiviral has a long way to go

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