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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently expanded its website to include a norovirus toolkit advising the ways in which one might contract the killer virus. Among the public health agency's prescribed practices to stop the spread of the virus: "Practice proper hand hygiene … Take care in the kitchen … Do not prepare food while infected … Clean and disinfect contaminated surfaces after throwing up or having diarrhea … Wash laundry thoroughly." But nowhere in that exhaustive battery of norovirus dodges was a recommendation to avoid reusable grocery bags. Curious, considering that reusable-but-not-recyclable alternative to single-use plastic bags...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon investigators have traced an outbreak of norovirus to a reusable grocery bag that members of a Beaverton girls' soccer team passed around when they shared cookies. The soccer team of 13- and 14-year-olds traveled to Seattle for a weekend tournament in October 2010.

Oregon public health officials have traced a nasty outbreak of norovirus infections in a group of soccer players to an unlikely source: a reusable grocery bag contaminated with what some experts are calling “the perfect pathogens.” The incident is raising questions, once again, about the cleanliness of the portable shopping bags that many consumers use to avoid the paper vs. plastic impact on the environment. “We wash our clothes when they’re dirty; we should wash our bags, too,” said Kimberly K. Repp, an epidemiologist with the Washington County Department of Health and Human Services in Hillsboro, Ore. Her work is...

52 Workers at TEPCO Nuclear Plant Infected with Norovirus Tokyo, Dec. 17 (Jiji Press)--A total of 52 workers at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s <9501> crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant have been infected with norovirus, the utility said Saturday. The workers, who are employees of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. <7011> and affiliated companies, were installing storage tanks for sludge accumulated after radioactive water decontamination. Some of them was hospitalized but most are getting better after receiving treatment. The number of patients may increase further, according to the plant operator, known as TEPCO. According to TEPCO, the workers reported symptoms...

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Officials with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say tests confirm that norovirus caused intestinal illness on a third straight cruise from South Carolina earlier this month. The norovirus sickened almost 420 people aboard Celebrity Mercury, which returned to Charleston on March 18. Norovirus symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps.

More than one in five passengers aboard the Celebrity Mercury cruise ship that departed Charleston more than a week ago has fallen ill with a stomach disorder, so many people that the ship recruited extra medical professionals from a Caribbean island before heading back toward Charleston. The gastrointestinal affliction includes vomiting and diarrhea and seems symptomatic of norovirus, a stomach flu most commonly found in confined places, such as cruise ships, hospitals and prisons.

Raleigh, N.C. — Tests show the students sickened while attending a leadership conference in Raleigh over the weekend suffered from norovirus, Wake County officials said Monday. About 150 of the 1,000 students from across the state who gathered at the downtown Raleigh Sheraton for a YMCA Youth & Government meeting reported nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Five were taken to area hospitals

The winter vomiting bug norovirus has struck 2.8million people, with health professionals braced for another rise as people return to schools and offices. The virus - which causes projectile vomiting, diarrhoea, mild fevers and headaches - is striking down more than 200,000 a week, according to official estimates. Three hospitals have been placed on red alert, while hundreds of wards up and down the country have been closed to new patients as the number of beds being taken up by bug victims reaches critical levels.

Britain in grip of norovirus as cases hit 3m By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor Last Updated: 1:50am GMT 12/01/2008 Three million people have been struck down by the winter vomiting bug - with experts fearing that cases could rise through this month and next. The norovirus season began a month earlier than normal this winter. Cases of the bug increased rapidly, with more than 200,000 people a week now catching the infection, official figures claim. Those with symptoms are urged to engage in good hygiene to prevent the virus spreading further Hospitals struggling to cope have closed hundreds of wards...

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...

WANTAGE, NJ (1010 WINS) -- Fifty people who ate at a Wantage Italian restaurant have come down with stomach flu symptoms, health officials said. While the cause of the outbreak at LiBerti's Restaurant is under investigation, an immediate inspection after the customers were sickened found violations with the establishment's water system. "The situation could have occurred a number of ways, from the water, from an employee who was ill who was handling food, from a customer who ate at the restaurant who passed it to somebody," Sussex County Health Administrator Stephen Gruchacz told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Saturday newspapers....

Two hospitals are asking visitors, especially children, to stay away until they control an outbreak of a highly contagious stomach virus that has sickened patients and staff members. "We're just asking the community to help out," said Dr. Ward Robinson, an infectious disease specialist at Moses Cone Hospital. "I don't think this is the black plague coming into Greensboro." Doctors confirmed an outbreak at the hospital and believe the virus also has hit Wesley Long Hospital. The number of people affected wasn't immediately available, hospital officials said. Three suspected norovirus cases first appeared on Feb. 1 and were not confirmed...

Two hospitals are asking visitors, especially children, to stay away until they control an outbreak of a highly contagious stomach virus.

JAMM AQUINO /ALEXANDRE DA SILVA / The Queen Elizabeth 2 made its way into Honolulu Harbor early yesterday morning. During its journey, the ship was hit with a norovirus outbreak on its Acapulco, Mexico-San Francisco leg and was met by the CDC after it docked in Honolulu. The stomach flu outbreak sickened at least 276 passengers and 28 crew members amid its around-the-world journey. CDC greets cruise ship A stomach flu virus seems to be under control aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2 Passengers and crew members aboard a cruise ship in which hundreds fell ill with a highly contagious stomach...

A Hilton hotel outside Washington has been closed for a top-to-bottom scrubbing after 15 employees and more than 100 guests were sickened by the highly contagious norovirus, a hotel spokesman said Friday. Hotel officials first heard reports of sick guests Wednesday and contacted Fairfax County health authorities, said Jim Cree, the director of sales and marketing at the hotel near Dulles International Airport. Officials confirmed it was norovirus Thursday night, he said. Outbreaks of norovirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea, are common on cruise ships and in places like hotels, prisons and nursing homes.

You have to go to the link...Gannett and all.

NDIANAPOLIS - The Marion County Health Department says more than 160 people have claimed they became ill after eating at an Olive Garden restaurant in Indianapolis last weekend. A health department spokesman says they're trying to isolate the cause and have found no health code violations at the restaurant on the city's north side.

MIAMI - The world's largest cruise ship was held in port Monday for intensive cleaning after a second outbreak of gastrointestinal illness in two voyages sickened 106 people. More than 380 passengers and crew members aboard Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas were sickened by norovirus during a Nov. 26-Dec. 3 Caribbean cruise. The ship was cleaned before its next cruise, but 97 passengers and 11 crew members became sick with the same illness last week, officials at the Miami-based cruise line said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommended keeping the ship in port and will oversee repeated cleaning...

The world's largest cruise ship, Freedom of the Seas, returned to Miami on Dec. 3rd with more than 380 passengers and crew were sickened by what was believed to be the norovirus, according to Royal Caribbean Cruise Line officials. The outbreak struck Freedom during a week-long cruise to the western Caribbean, and was likely brought aboard on Nov. 26th by an ill guest, according to the company. The norovirus, spread by contact, can quickly sweep through enclosed areas like cruise ships. The outbreak on Freedom comes only a couple of weeks after more than 700 passengers and crew members were...

VANCOUVER, Wash. — A third person died Friday from a viral outbreak at a retirement center that has sickened more than 55 residents and workers, authorities said. Forty residents and 19 staff members of the Cascade Inn were affected by the norovirus. Nine people have been hospitalized, Clark County health officials said. Marni Storey, manager of the Health Department's infectious disease program, said she expects to see more cases before the outbreak of norovirus dies down. All three deaths involved elderly residents with other underlying medical conditions, health officials said. The previous deaths occurred Wednesday and Thursday. Health officials have...