Prevent Norovirus

Noroviruses are the group of viruses that cause the stomach flu. The stomach flu can be refered to as any number of things, the stomach bug, the stomach flu, a stomach virus, or gastroeneritis.

Symptoms of norovirus include vomitting, nausea and diarehhea. These symptoms can occur between 12 to 48 hours after exposure to the virus and can last anywhere from a few hours to a few days.

The problem with the norovirus is that it is highly contagious. You can be exposed to the norovirus without even knowing it. About half of the case of norovirus stem from ingesting food that has been contaminated. The food worker may not have used proper hygeine when preparing your meal. You may think you have a case of food poisoning, but really you have the norovirus and are yourself highly contagious.

The first step in protecting yourself from the norovirus is hand washing. You will need to wash your hands for at least twenty seconds under warm water after using the bathroom, before preparing food, and before eating. It is important to make sure you rinse your hands for at least five seconds. You are basically rinsing the germs and viruses down the drain.

After you wash your hands you will want to turn the faucet off with a paper towel. Never use your hands. When you turn on the faucet you are distributing any germs that are resting on your hands to the faucet, turning the faucet off with your clean hands will redeposit the germs. This is something that you need to avoid. On that note the most sanitary manner of drying your hands is using a paper towel. You can then use that same paper towel to turn off the faucet and then open the bathroom door. You will prevent reconaminating your hands.

If someone is ill with the norovirus you will want to clean any area that they have touched, thrown up on, or possibly contaminated with a solution of bleach and water. It is the nmost effective method of killing norovirus. Bleach the area to be cleaned and let the solution sit for five minutes then wipe down with a paper towel.

There are a lot of misconceptions about norovirus. You can not get norovirus from being in the same rooms as someone who is ill. You actually have to ingest the virus through your mouth to get it. This means that you should avoid using your hands on anything that touches your mouth until they have been freshly washed.

You can not get norovirus from using the same toilet as someone who is sick. Remember though that if they have the virus on there hands and they touched the toilet handle you can get the virus from the handles surface. This is good reason to bleach down the handles after someone is sick. This is also good reason to wash your hands immediately after using the bathroom.

It is easy to get wrapped up in washing your hands repeatedly and over sterilizing everything in your house, but this is not necessary. Norovirus is not an airborne virus. You have to have direct contact with the vomit or the feces of an infected person. Although it is highly contagious, it is highly preventable. You can wash your hands, avoid touching your mouth, and avoid getting the norovirus this stomach flu season.