Norovirus?- UW frat, sorority hit by flulike illness

[BeTheChange]

http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_042506HEBuwnorovirusJM.6e05a567.html

That is bizarre. Wonder where they went on spring break and what they brought back?

From the Article:
"SEATTLE - Dozens of University of Washington sorority and fraternity members have been sickened by a stomach flu that health officials believe is the norovirus.

The students at the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and Phi Gamma Delta fraternity are expected to recover.

Surfaces at the houses are being disinfected and students are advised to wash their hands and not share food or drink.

While the gastroenteritis can be serious in the elderly it is fairly common on cruise ships and in retirement homes..."



http://www.birdflumonitor.com/bird_flu_by_the_numbers_a_very_bleak_picture-archive.html
The comment at the bottom of that page is eerie.:

"The Other Bird Flu Cases:

Has anyone else noticed that the "norovirus", "rotavirus", "winter vomiting bug", “gastro” running rampant with cases and quarantines in India, China, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Carribean, the United States, and Canada; has closed 25 day care centers in Guilford City, North Carolina; nursing homes in New York City, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania; has killed a 12 year old boy in Iowa, had three charter jets met on the tarmac by ambulances, last week, at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, and one international flight, Hong Kong to Vancouver, also met by ambulances at the airport? Has anyone noticed that while statistics for “norovirus” state that only five out of every thousand cruises should be affected by this illness, five cruises have been hit, returning from Mexico, Hawaii, and the Carribean, and hundreds infected, in the past couple of weeks? Has anyone noticed that a “parvo” outbreak is killing dogs in the same communities affected with the “norovirus”, including areas in California, the American midwest, Virginia, Texas, and in Ontario, Canada, and that these dead dogs are eerily reminiscent of dead dogs in Azerbaijan? Has anyone noticed that 140 Canadian Infantrymen from Camp Petawawa in Ontario were stricken while training and had to receive medical attention for vomiting and diarrhea? Has anyone noticed that 27 students from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA had to go to the hospital with this on March 17th and that the Rhode Island Department of Health is currently investigating an outbreak at a Woonsocket, R. I. father-daughter dance on March 31st? Rhode Island Health has directed that anyone with vomiting and diarrhea seek immediate medical attention and, if in child-care, health-care, or food services, not report to work? Incubation is two and a half weeks for the avian flu. Early cases have false negatives and milder symptoms. Run the symptoms "vomiting" and "diarrhea" on Yahoo News. Add “nosebleeds”, an early symptom of avian influenza, and find that children in Austin, Texas are also experiencing that aspect of the illness. Look yourself. Check "cholera" to find the thousands of cases in Africa filed under that cover-story. We are in a pandemic of something. First wave. Please provision yourselves and your families. God be with us all.

POSTED BY Imam Muadin"

[flamingyouth]

1. Those houses are next door to each other

And they socialize a lot, which is probably why so many of them got sick.

[The Magistrate]

2. That Last Bit, Ma;am, Is Quite A Laugh

Tye idea that cases of anything woud be reported as cholera to cover up and prevent panic os one of the funniest things to cross my mind in days. Cholera is an ancient and lethal and viciously contagious scourge.

What is interesting about the attempt to proclaim that there are a great many cases occuring but hushed up is that this would, if true, ony prove that the touted disease is actually not poarticularly serious or lethal, for the procalimed large numbers of cases are not acompanied by any grat number of deaths, and therefore could only inmdicate a very small proportion of peple are seriously affected. There is no particular reason to suspect this new strain of flue is more lethal than the usual runs of the disease, which, though it is not noticed owing to its normality, kills a number of people every year.

[Emit]

3. Norovirus has hit our area hard

In Carson City, NV a few weeks ago, they had so many cases that the local Hospital announced on the local news NOT to come in to the hospital, but to stay at home and then listed how to manage the symptoms.

In Reno, where I live, one of our local daycares where my children used to attend was shut down for four days because they had over 30 cases of it.

[Olney Blue]

4. Norovirus outbreaks are common this time of year.

The last paragraph is confusing. Although norovirus gastroenteritis is sometimes called "stomach flu", the norovirus is not an
influenza virus. Norovirus diarrhea and vomiting usually lasts one to two days, unless you have a pre-existing condition.
Linking norovirus to "bird flu" is incorrect because they are very different types of viruses.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[antigone382]

6. Your thread title isn't accurate.

These students were not hit with flu-like symptoms. Flu-like symptoms include fever, coughing, weakness, muscle pain, etc., and affect primarily the respiratory tract. There is no such thing as a "stomach flu"; what we call the stomach flu is usually some type of 24-hour stomach virus not related to influenza in any way at all.

The likelihood is that these kids got norovirus, or something like it. While all outbreaks of illness are serious and require attention for the people involved, there is no reason to instantly assume that this is somehow related to the avian flu--because based on the symptoms displayed by these students, it isn't.

[BeTheChange]

8. The article calls it a Norovirus.

and that word is prepended to the title of the article. I didnt title the article. In looking for what a norovirus is I stumbled across that post many times and thought it was a bit odd.

I do think this lung flu, outbreak of mumps and norovirus increase is bizarre.

[antigone382]

9. I see. Should have clicked the link first.

My apologies.

I still don't understand why the author of this article described it as a "flu-like illness" when it clearly isn't one...except either through total ignorance or an attempt to get more attention for something that otherwise wouldn't be particularly newsworthy.

I'm not convinced we're really seeing an increase in the flu. It's an incredibly common illness that kills a lot of people each year. I think we're just seeing a lot more attention paid to it because the avian flu is big news and the media will latch onto anything that can be twisted to relate to it.

I understand your concern, and I don't mean to dismiss the very real public health risks of pandemics and epidemics. However, outbreaks like these are not uncommon; bacteria, viruses, and other potential pathogens are everywhere. The best thing to do is to always keep that in mind and take steps to protect yourself, like washing your hands thoroughly and frequently, etc.

[Avalux]

7. Humans are vastly outnumbered by viruses and bacteria.

It's fact they're out there, and a lot of them are pathogens that cause illness, most not fatal. This has been going on for millions of years and we have to live with it. We are not in a pandemic and none of these 'outbreaks' are related to avian flu.