I'm pretty much ready to buy my family hazmat suits and have them start wearing them full-time for the next couple of months. First there's the flu that has me shooting visual daggers at every kid who coughs in our vicinity, and now there's a new "vomiting virus" infiltrating the country that can keep you and yours home and miserable for days on end too.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today released a report that details this new strain of norovirus that is taking over in the United States and spreading through the world. More than 140 outbreaks in the U.S. since September have been caused by it, and more may be on the way.
According to USA Today, we have our friends in Australia to thank for this one as that's where's it originated. It's been dubbed the GII4 Sydney virus. With it comes things like "nausea, projectile vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain."
Since it's a new strain of the virus, it can potentially have a wider reach since people haven't been exposed to it before. And bonus -- it's extremely contagious.
There is some good news, however. While it's not a fun one to endure, it's not highly dangerous in most cases. The majority of people will fight it off without any kind of medical intervention after a couple of days. Of course, the elderly and others with compromised immune systems are always at the highest risk.
More from The Stir: 5 Surprising Ways to Prevent This Year's Nasty Flu
So it could be worse, but still, I'm so sick of all of the sick. And it's only January. The season for this stuff runs through March!
Actually my family has been pretty fortunate thus far, and besides a bad sinus infection I had last week, we've managed to escape anything else ... so far. But I live in fear and with lots of hand sanitizer just waiting for something to strike, as I know it has for many across the country. How many days until summer?
What kind of sickness has your family been hit with? Are you living in fear of sickness?
Image via bratha/Flickr
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Comments 45
Why do people freak out over getting sick? Just go live in a bubble if you are that scared. My family has not been sick so far and we are not germaphobes. My son and I get our yearly flu vaccinations, he is fully immunized and at age 1 has never been sick ,not even an ear infection. And that is because we don't sanitize his bottle every time he drops it, we pick up food he throws on the floor and he eats it, and so forth. You are guaranteed to get sick if you are a germaphobe, because you need germ exposure to build a strong immune system.
I do fear stomach viruses. Ugh I hate them with a passion.
Probably jinxing myself but my household has only had a cold go through. Flu went through my daughter's daycare, but she never got it and she never gave it to us. I hear about the flu all over the news, but I only personally know one person who has had the flu.
Our house got hit with this bug and our son got it too but his symptoms were not as bad as ours and he's the only one that got the flu shot. A word of advise for any mom's out there that get this, don't try to read your kids Dr. Sues it will exhaust and humiliate you.
Its not extremely contagious. You can only get it by ingesting the feces or vomit of someone who has it. So all the gross people who use the bathroom and don't wash their hands properly (or at all) are the reason why it spreads. I NEVER touch my face while out in public and I wash my hands like crazy when I get home. Its easy to prevent, its not like its airborne.
wamom223, the flu shot has absolutely nothing to do with the stomach flu.
Hand sanitizer does nothing to prevent the spread of norovirus and is, in fact, just creating bigger nastier germs just like the obsessive over use of antibacterial soaps have done.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/really-the-claim-hand-sanitizer-stops-norovirus-spread/