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32% drop in norovirus sufferers

14:05, Jan 15 2013

 

There is a "downward trend" in the number of people suffering from the winter vomiting bug, health officials have said.

The number of confirmed cases of norovirus has lowered in recent weeks, with the latest data showing that there was a 32% decrease in the number of cases during the first week of 2013 compared to the last week of 2012, said the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

But the experts warned the figure could rise again because of the unpredictability of the norovirus season.

Even though there has been a decline in cases, the number of people who have contracted the bug this season is still 56% higher than it was last year.

The HPA said there have been 4,407 laboratory-confirmed cases of norovirus so far this season. But for every reported case an estimated 288 are not flagged up, meaning as many as 1.26 million people could have been struck down with the bug.

Experts said that there have been 728 outbreaks in hospitals so far this season.

The HPA recently revealed that a new strain of norovirus has been responsible for the majority of recent cases. The new variant of the bug, called Sydney 2012, has become the "dominant strain" and will have caused many of the cases of the recent outbreak.

John Harris, an expert in norovirus from the HPA said: "Norovirus activity always varies from year to year and although we might have expected cases to rise again now we have passed the New Year period this hasn't been the case.

"We can't read anything into this fall and don't know how busy the rest of the season will be. The busiest months are normally from December to April, so further cases will occur but we can't say if there will be further significant increases in the number of laboratory reports."

Norovirus is highly contagious and can be transmitted through contact with an infected person or contaminated surfaces and objects. Symptoms include sudden vomiting, diarrhoea - or both, a temperature, headache and stomach cramps. The bug usually goes away within a few days.

 
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