"And that's why it's challenging to get rid of," he said. Symptoms usually start to fade after 24 to 36 hours, but Bogoch warned people infected with norovirus can shed the virus in their stool for "days or even weeks" after they've recovered. Older adults, people with compromised immune systems and young children tend to experience the most severe symptoms. The severity of symptoms will vary from person to person, and some people infected with norovirus may be asymptomatic. "Diarrhea can be a part of that but it is very frequently significant nausea and vomiting, and people will feel really unwell for about a day or two before symptoms start to abate." "Symptoms can start rather abruptly in the sense that people will have pretty profound nausea and vomiting," Bogoch said. The incubation period for norovirus is between 12 and 48 hours, but symptoms such as nausea and vomiting can appear as soon as 12 hours after exposure. "Anywhere where they're in a sort of close contact, a closed environment, it's very easy to transmit."ĭrinking water and foods such as oysters, prawns and many fruits and vegetables can also easily become contaminated with norovirus due to exposure to sewage, according to the NCCID. "Someone who comes into contact either with a sick person or the contaminated environment, it gets onto their hands or their food … and they pick it up," Mazzulli, told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview on Thursday. Tony Mazzulli, infectious diseases specialist at Toronto's Sinai Health, outbreaks typically occur in crowded settings such as schools, hospitals, childcare facilities, nursing homes, cruise ships and passenger trains. The typical route of transmission for norovirus is through infected bodily fluids and contaminants like saliva, vomit or, most commonly, fecal matter.Īccording to Dr. "It will remain on surfaces for some time, and can be resistant to heat, cold and even alcohol-based cleaning products." "Unfortunately, it doesn't take a large exposure to be infected with this, and the other interesting thing about norovirus is that it's actually rather hardy," Bogoch said. Most people will contract norovirus five times in their lifetime, according to the NCCID. Gastroenteritis is an inflammation of the stomach or intestines usually marked by vomiting and diarrhea, and norovirus is responsible for an estimated 685 million cases of acute gastroenteritis each year. HOW CONTAGIOUS IS NOROVIRUS AND HOW IS IT SPREAD?Īccording to the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCCID), norovirus is highly contagious and has been the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis outbreaks around the world since 2002. There's social gatherings, people are back at work, kids are back at school, people are travelling, and many of the infections that decreased in frequency during 20 have started to re-emerge again." "But the world today appears to be very similar to pre-pandemic times.
Get the CTV News App now for breaking news alerts and all the top stories."Throughout 2020, 2021, even parts of 2022, we had school closures, we had business closures, we had stay-at-home orders and we had tremendous attention to sanitation and hygiene," Bogoch told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview on Thursday. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases expert at Toronto's University Health Network, norovirus infection rates in Canada right now are typical for the average pre-pandemic winter. It is highly transmissible and common in Canada, so most people here will have experienced an infection at some point in their lives.Īlthough pandemic-related precautions such as physical distancing, masking and thorough hand hygiene have made outbreaks less common over the last few years, public health experts say the virus is making a comeback this winter.Īccording to Dr. Norovirus, also known as Norwalk virus, affects people of all ages and is typically most active between November and March. Cases of norovirus, the bug behind 60 per cent of cases of 'stomach flu' in humans, are on the rise in Canada again after a few quiet years during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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