DENVER — Outbreaks of norovirus across the state have doubled in 2008 when compared with 2007.
Last year, the state health department received 145 reports of outbreaks, compared with 2007, when state health officials reported 72 outbreaks. Most outbreaks, which typically affect a few people, happened in long-term care centers for senior citizens.
Other outbreaks have happened in child-care centers, camps and hospitals.
“The trend is a clear increase,” said Richard Vogt, executive director of Tri-County Health Department that serves Denver-area Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties. “We have certainly seen long-term-care facility outbreaks frequently.”
Officials say improved lab tests to pinpoint the infection and increased knowledge of the illness’ symptoms may have led to the spike in reports. There’s also a law that requires nursing homes, child-care centers and others to notify health officials about outbreaks of the highly contagious gastrointestinal illness.
Symptoms include two to three days of vomiting and diarrhea.
There were 14 outbreaks the first year Colorado began tracking the illness in 2003. Since then, 6,517 people have contracted the virus, with 13 fatal cases.
Health officials say more people living together in close quarters could also be leading to more outbreaks.
Nursing homes face “real challenges with sanitation,” Vogt said, which could explain why most outbreaks happen there. The virus is spread through contact with fecal matter.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologist Dr. Aron Hall said the virus was first discovered in the 1960s in Norwalk, Oho, but became widely known after outbreaks on cruise ships in 2002.
“Although not life-threatening, it’s a pretty miserable experience,” he said.
Procedures for containing outbreaks at nursing homes include quarantining infected patients and using spray bottles of bleach to disinfect areas.
“All you do is clean, clean, clean, clean,” said Heidi Pedersen, executive director of Chateau des Mons Care and Assisted Living in Englewood, which had an outbreak after Christmas. “If you keep cleaning fast enough, you can just limit it to the first three or four people who got it.”
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Information from: The Denver Post,
