by Eric Lannak

Created on: October 06, 2010   Last Updated: May 02, 2011

During winter months there’s often a big upswing in the “stomach flu” (also called the “24 hour flu”, “stomach bug”, and “I ate something that didn’t agree with me”). It’s a brief illness that causes nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, diarrhea, and general misery for 1-3 days, with symptoms that come on fast and resolve quickly after 24-48 miserable hours.

The illness was first described back in the early 1900’s and was called “Winter Vomiting Disease”, a name that’s still sometimes used. Now it’s more correctly called “viral enteritis” or “viral gastroenteritis”, an inflammation of the digestive tract caused by a virus infection.

Norovirus (previously known as the “Norwalk virus”, “Norwalk-type virus” or more generally as “calcivirus”) is now known to cause most cases of viral enteritis. It’s estimated to be the cause of 90% of all outbreaks worldwide, and the U.S. Center for Disease Control estimates it causes 50% of all food-borne infections in the nation.

NOROVIRUS: ONE TOUGH BUG

Called “NoV” for short, Norovirus is highly contagious. Fewer than 30 virus particles can make you sick, but the feces of a sick person can contain 10 million particles per GRAM. To put this in perspective, a gram is about the weight of a U.S. dime. Thirty virus particles would be contained in a particle a three-hundred-thousandth of a dime-

That’s why food is the most common way to catch NoV. An ill crop picker, food service worker, or supermarket employee can pass the virus to hundreds or thousands. Scrubbing produce and eating at home can help you avoid the illness, but if you wipe your mouth after selecting tomatoes you might still pick it up. A steak served at sizzling germ-killing temperatures may rest on a plate handled by an ill server.

Personal contact is the second most common way it's transmitted. Holding your boyfriend's hand as he lays miserable in bed, wiping your child’s butt after a bout of diarrhea, or shaking hands with the infected director of your department at work, can all pass the virus to you.

The third most common way to pick it up is by surface contact. NoV can live for days outside a host body, and contact with a surface contaminated by an ill person some time in the past can make you sick. Bathroom surfaces, doorknobs, telephones, and counter tops

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