Canada norovirus outbreak: 170 Sam Sherratt Public School students absent today
A norovirus outbreak at a Milton, Ontario school has left the school nearly half empty today, according to the Halton District School Board (HDSB).
Norovirus
Image/CDC
The school district announced on it’s website that the “Sam Sherratt Public School has a confirmed case of Norwalk virus. Although not all have been confirmed to have acquired Norwalk, 170 students are absent from school.”
An information sheet was sent to parents informing them that the illness is norovirus, which advises parents that they should keep their child home for 48 hours if they are ill.
Noroviruses are a group of viruses that cause the “stomach flu,” or gastroenteritis in people.
The symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and some stomach cramping. Sometimes people additionally have a low-grade fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, and a general sense of tiredness. The illness often begins suddenly, and the infected person may feel very sick. In most people, the illness is self-limiting with symptoms lasting for about 1 or 2 days. In general, children experience more vomiting than adults do.
Norovirus is spread person to person particularly in crowded, closed places. Norovirus is typicallyspread through contaminated food and water, touching surfaces or objects contaminated withnorovirus and then putting your hand or fingers in your mouth and close contact with someone who is vomiting or has diarrhea.
The highly contagious norovirus is the second leading infectious cause of gastroenteritis-associated deaths accounting for 800 annually. Norovirus causes more than 20 million illnesses annually, and it is the leading cause of gastroenteritis outbreaks in the United States.
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