Outbreak

[joe13]

So in the local paper this morning there was an article about norovirus hitting hard in the neighboring county to where I live; I literally live right on the border of the two counties. They said its a strain from Australia that people haven't been exposed to before, and that it has been hitting the area very badly. They haven't found an outbreak of it yet in my county, but as I live right next to it I know it will hit my area first. It's making me very paranoid and I'm not sure there is anything I can do. I've already heard of a few friends and people in my area becoming very ill and it could have been the virus. I hate this time of year!!

[ditchy_jon]

So in the local paper this morning there was an article about norovirus hitting hard in the neighboring county to where I live; I literally live right on the border of the two counties. They said its a strain from Australia that people haven't been exposed to before, and that it has been hitting the area very badly. They haven't found an outbreak of it yet in my county, but as I live right next to it I know it will hit my area first. It's making me very paranoid and I'm not sure there is anything I can do. I've already heard of a few friends and people in my area becoming very ill and it could have been the virus. I hate this time of year!!

The press have this way of blowing everything out of proportion. Take the Norovirus in Britain at the moment. It is estimated that for everyone 1 person that gets confirmed norovirus (ie: laborotory test), there are 298 people who have it that is unconfirmed. Therefore there have been 3900 confirmed cases, which means that they believe 1,100,000 people have been struck down with it. In Britain that is 1 in every 67 people. However I know of nearly 200 people and out of those only 2 have confirmed they they have had it. Meaning that its more likely to be 700,000 people who have had it.

What I am trying to get at is that the press need to sell papers and saying that an outbreak of a disease has hit million sells more papers than one person struck down with vomiting bug.

[joe13]

Thanks for the info!

[claire43]

I realise the media hype things up but when you hear it on the BBC news nearly everyday with the statistics getting worse daily it does tend to make people like me panic, thinking we can't escape it when its all over the country. I live in a town with a population of approx 60,000. Our local hospital has closed off wards due to the virus, handed out protective clothing to those visitors they are allowing in and you cant have a conversation without somebody saying so & so has it....... Dont think the UK has been hit this badly before.

[Natiebear]

Ok so my dream is to visit the UK one day for vacation but man I'm scared to with the news on noro there. I guess I'll have to visit in the summer.

[claire43]

Until a few years ago the only time I ever heard of noro was when some luxury cruise liner was hit badly & had to be quarantined. Then when I came onto this site a couple of years ago I realised this horrific bug was extremely common which put me on high alert. But this year it seems to be hitting our little island really badly. Dont understand why or how I just want it to go away now!!

[graceandhope]

Dont think the UK has been hit this badly before.

Yes it has, and this is actually way off the peak numbers of cases per week which we normally get in Jan/ Feb. The difference this year is that there are a slightly higher number of cases earlier than usual. That could be because the season is running earlier (possibly due to that very cold spell of weather we had) or because last winter was a very mild year. What noone knows is whether it's the start of a bad year, or if it's just going to run its course earlier this year.

The figures that are being given are number of cases since summer. So about 6 months' worth, not recent ones. I live in one of the counties that is hardest hit and I know of 2 people who've had something - one a 5 year old child where it was going round school (but could be rotavirus) and another who had d only. Neither confirmed noro. Yet this is an area where whole hospitals have been closed, but that was a precaution - only a few wards actually had it. Hospitals seem to be taking it much more seriously now and closing to visitors to stop the spread. Yes, it makes the news more, but surely it's a good thing?