[guide.chat] virus illness sweeps across the country
- From: vanessa <qwerty1234567a@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "GUIDE CHAT" <guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2012 19:49:50 +0100
Thousands suffer as UK is swept by stomach bug
A highly infectious stomach bug has claimed thousands of victims as it sweeps
across Britain.
The virus has badly affected schools from Cornwall to northern England, and
forced the cancellation of surgery at hospitals in Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland.
Because it is so infectious, it is a difficult illness to contain, experts say.
While there are outbreaks during most winters, levels are higher than usual
this year.
Health Secretary Alan Milburn said the Department of Health was ' keeping a
close eye' on the spread of the virus.
'It's right to be concerned about it,' he said. 'As I understand it, this is
quite a common airborne virus which has hit certain parts of the country in
hospitals and schools.
'It happens every year but the important thing is that we keep it under close
monitoring, which is precisely what we are doing.'
Mr Milburn denied that the spread of the virus was a result of poor hygiene
standards in hospitals.
The bug, known variously as Norwalk virus and SRSV (small roundstructured
virus), often starts with the sudden onset of severe and explosive sickness.
A spokesman for the Public Health Laboratory Service, which monitors infectious
disease outbreaks, said doctors across England were seeing
more cases than usual. 'There is SRSV activity around the country,' he said.
'It is the most common gut infection and levels peak during the winter season.'
Around 2,000 reports are normally made to the PHLS in a year of high activity.
However, most cases go unreported as the illness often lasts only 36 hours, and
it is estimated that between 600,000 and a million Britons are affected each
year.
The illness is more common at this time of year, which has led to it also being
referred to as 'winter vomiting disease'.
Schools have been particularly badly hit by the outbreak.
One of the first affected was Fowey Community College in Cornwall, where half
the 1,100 children called in sick on one day last week.
The virus has also been reported at schools in the Manchester area.
One-third of the 900 pupils at All Hallows School in Penwortham are currently
off sick.
One victim, Jenna Clorin-Wright, 15, said: 'You feel terrible for about three
days. All my friends have come down with it.'
The virus has caused the closure of hospital wards in Glasgow and affected
several other hospitals in Scotland, as well as in Swansea and Newport in
Wales, and in Belfast.
Among the towns with known outbreaks are Newcastle, Leeds,
Manchester, Preston, Birmingham, Eastbourne, Brighton, Southampton, Plymouth,
Market Drayton in Shropshire and Derry in Northern Ireland.
Britain's leading infections expert, Professor Hugh Pennington, called the bug
the 'Mike Tyson of viruses'.
He said the virus has a greater chance of spreading where a large number of
people are in a closed environment, such as a hospital, school, holiday camp or
a cruise liner.
'It is an institutional thing and it is not a surprise that there have been so
many outbreaks in hospitals,' he said.
'It is a very clever virus. It is pretty good at spreading itself.'
Professor Pennington said scientists began to study the virus when they could
not link outbreaks of vomiting and diarrhoea with other bugs such as salmonella.
But it was more difficult to study the SRSV in the lab under microscopes
compared with salmonella and E.coli, he added.
Many patients do not go to see their doctor and if they do they are unlikely to
take a sample that would confirm the nature of the illness.
The infection usually starts with the sudden onset of severe and explosive
sickness, known as projectile vomiting. The victim can be absolutely fine one
minute and then vomiting the next. Some people develop diarrhoea.
Symptoms usually last for 24 to 36 hours and there are rarely any long-term
effects.
The illness is transmitted person to person, or via contaminated surroundings,
especially of toilets, but it can be spread by contaminated food and water.
The most commonly contaminated food is shellfish that contains concentrated
amounts of virus from sewage contaminated waters.
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