Norovirus: The Highly Contagious Stomach Bug - What You Need to Know

This episode of "Your Checkup" tackles norovirus, a highly contagious virus that's a leading cause of vomiting, diarrhea, and foodborne illness in the U.S. We'll break down how it spreads, explore common outbreak locations like healthcare facilities, restaurants, schools, and even cruise ships, and give you practical prevention tips. We'll also cover current food safety alerts and discuss how to respond if you suspect you have norovirus. Whether you’re a parent, a traveler, or anyone who wants to stay healthy, this episode will equip you with the knowledge you need to protect yourself and your community from norovirus.

Takeaways

Norovirus is a highly contagious virus causing gastroenteritis.
It spreads easily through contaminated food, water, and surfaces.
Handwashing with soap and water is crucial for prevention.
Hydration is key during a Norovirus infection.
Pedialyte is recommended for rehydration.
Outbreaks often occur in crowded places like schools and cruise ships.
Symptoms include vomiting and diarrhea from both ends.
Food workers should avoid bare handling of food.
Seek medical help if symptoms persist or worsen.
Education on Norovirus can help protect loved ones.

Keywords

Norovirus, gastroenteritis, prevention, transmission, health education, foodborne illness, hydration, symptoms, outbreaks, contagious

Transcript

Ed Delesky, MD (00:04)
Hi, welcome back to your checkup. are the Patient Education Podcast, where we bring conversations from the doctor's office to your ears. On this podcast, we try to bring medicine closer to its patients. I'm Ed Dalesky, a family medicine resident in the Philadelphia area.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (00:18)
and I'm Nicole Aruffo I'm a nurse.

Ed Delesky, MD (00:19)
And we are so excited you were able to join us here again today. So if anyone out there, which I know that many of you listening have had this, have gambled on a fart and actually have had both gas and liquid come out, one would qualify that as a short. And one of us may have had that happen. And it wasn't me.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (00:43)
it wasn't me, bro.

Ed Delesky, MD (00:47)
So, hell yeah, brother. I really tried to drop that in front of like in various places and it wasn't, I mean, it makes sense where I tried it and it didn't work, but that's Hulk Hogan, right? Okay. Yeah. That's a funny bit that's going around.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (01:04)
on Yung and Essa.

Ed Delesky, MD (01:06)
Young Nessa. Outside of that, we're continuing to watch Traders, which has really sparked up a nostalgic trip down memory lane to watch the Biggest Loser. We will not comment on the like. Controversy of it. Very problematic, but at the end of the day, it was something we both grew up with that was near and dear to our heart, and I just love watching it. I also think it's inspirational. I happen to think it's inspirational.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (01:19)
It's so good. problematic. love it.

Ed Delesky, MD (01:35)
And I think it's good television as well. there's that. Biggest loser. So what are we going to talk about today, Nick, on this tasty tip?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (01:45)
is this what this is? A tasty tip? Sweet, we didn't talk about anything tasty.

Ed Delesky, MD (01:47)
Well, of sorts.

All right. Well, let's talk about something tasty real quick.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (01:59)
think we've been anywhere new since we last recorded.

Ed Delesky, MD (02:02)
well, I mean, what I haven't explained is that you made me a birthday cake by hand, which was beautiful and amazing. There is this brownie thin bottom layer. What did I say? You know, a beautiful ice cream cake with chocolate chip cookie dough, with those crunchies that everyone knows about that I'm talking about that live in an ice cream cake mixed with fudge. was an Oreo crunchy that was handmade. And then there was.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (02:12)
Or is an ice cream cake? Well, just a cake, but.

Ed Delesky, MD (02:31)
There was cool whip top and there was, it was decorated on top with some more cookie dough and it was absolutely delicious. It was phenomenal. So that, that in and of itself is tasty. And your, we already know how I feel about your spaghetti and meatballs, but your Caesar salad, what a, like, oh my God. And you got to use the salad spinner that you got for your birthday. We still have to go get you one of those head spas to actually fully celebrate your birthday.

But your Caesar style, like I've never had Caesar dressing like this. Homemade, guys, I am the luckiest man alive. But a homemade Caesar dressing. I mean, what's your secret? You're here, like you have a platform.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (03:15)
I mean there isn't really a secret.

Ed Delesky, MD (03:18)
It's elbow grease.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (03:20)
Yeah, that's what it is.

Ed Delesky, MD (03:21)
It's elbow grease. Well, anyway, so I remember one time when I was younger that I became violently ill and had to stay home from school. And this happened like every five years or so. I would just get these random bouts of puking. And it was told to me that I remember this, that I had an exorcist level of vomit when I was laying on the couch when I was younger. And I would get up and there would be a ton of vomit coming out of my mouth. And you're probably wondering, what the heck am I about to listen to on this episode? Nick, what are we going to talk about today?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (03:50)
Today we're talking about Norovirus

Ed Delesky, MD (03:53)
Exactly. So Nick, why don't you tell us what exactly is norovirus?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (03:58)
Well, basically it's a really bad stomach bug. It's a virus that causes inflammation in the stomach and intestines and you got it coming out of both ends, most likely.

Ed Delesky, MD (04:11)
Yeah, that stinks. the reason we're talking about it literally both ends is because it's everywhere right now. It's a lot of people are getting it. And it makes me wonder why is it so common?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (04:23)
Well, it's so common because it is really contagious and spreads really easily.

Ed Delesky, MD (04:27)
Yeah. It is the leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States. And to speak to how many how often outbreaks occur, there are about 2500 reported outbreaks each year in the United States. And it particularly happens on cruises. At least that's how it was taught to us in medical school. And so let's talk about specifically how this highly contagious virus spreads. What is it? What's happened?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (04:55)
This highly contagious virus spreads from direct contact from person to person, unlike the bird flu. Great. Can't get this one from birds. Can get it from people. Definitely. Very common in contaminated sources of food, water, and then any surfaces contaminated with neurovirus can cause an outbreak.

Ed Delesky, MD (05:02)
Unlike the bird flu.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (05:22)
looks like it's big with contaminated shellfish, especially raw oysters, which-

Ed Delesky, MD (05:26)
to pull it there. That would have been a tasty tip. gotta go to Doc's.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (05:29)
you love oysters.

Gotta go to Docs. Did we not talk about that?

Ed Delesky, MD (05:35)
That was actually delicious.

I don't think we talked about Doc's Oyster House.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (05:40)
and then leafy greens and fresh fruit.

Ed Delesky, MD (05:45)
Damn, should be watching your vegetables. And so really, because of how easily it's transmitted, it's really important to, I guess we could talk about where it spreads first. So it does happen to happen in health care facilities. So I guess people living in long term care facilities, rehabs, hospitals, it flies around there. And those people are more generally more higher at risk. And so they're more frail as well. So good thing to think about trying to protect them and wash your hands.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (06:15)
Have you gotten a good GI bug from work yet?

Ed Delesky, MD (06:18)
Me? I've been lucky. last half day GI bug was from three week old lentil soup I had a couple months ago where I was in the middle of, ironically, a GI visit with a patient talking about his liver. And I was like, tripodding, trying to keep the vomit down. And then I left the room.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (06:41)
Yeah, this is why we don't things become science experiments in the Fray-a-Jetty.

Ed Delesky, MD (06:45)
Right. And then this like nice GI fellow was like, here's the bathroom. Me unknowingly that there was a bathroom like three feet from where I was standing. She took me like across the building. But then I had some privacy to, you know, take care of some business in the toilet. So what's another place? I'm looking at schools and children's centers. Is that a really common place for this to happen?

Nicole Aruffo, RN (07:08)
yeah, well you know kids are little petri dishes so like what virus isn't spreading in a school or a daycare.

Ed Delesky, MD (07:14)
definitely close quarters. And then we mentioned it earlier, cruise ships. I mean, this has a moniker of cruise ship virus. And so as a common association. And then while that name is branded, it's only really a small proportion of all of the reported outbreaks, again, related to close living quarters, sharing dining experiences. And if people are touching surfaces all the time, then that's definitely where something can come up. And so here we go. What steps can we take to be proactive?

and protect ourselves from these potential outbreaks.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (07:48)
Well, the first one, you guessed it, is hand washing. Also, I think important to say, especially with these GI bug things and hand washing, you soap and water, your little hand sanitizer isn't going to cut it here.

Ed Delesky, MD (08:05)
Say that again.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (08:06)
Use soap and water.

Ed Delesky, MD (08:08)
Mm-hmm.

Nicole Aruffo, RN (08:11)
Forget about the hand sanitizer. You gotta scrub it off.

Ed Delesky, MD (08:16)
Absolutely. That was a great one. Food workers should avoid bare handling of the food. I like they should do that at baseline, but just a reminder. They should clean and disinfect surfaces frequently. And then if we have food preparation sites and cooking sites, make sure we're being mindful of that. So what can happen if you suspect norovirus? I'll take it off the dome here a little bit.

I guess when it comes to like a viral gastroenteritis, which is what that would be. I think hydration is the biggest key. Like it's extremely uncomfortable for sure. I think everyone's been there. But the thing that can really land you in the hospital and in some trouble is if you like puke diarrhea, puke diarrhea, puke, puke, puke diarrhea, and then you become like formally dehydrated, not like I'm a little thirsty, but like there's not enough stuff in your body.

and your kidneys get nuked. So that's the point of hydration. I would say like, yeah, water's better than nothing, but we're talking like a fluid that actually kind of resembles what your body is made of. So Pedialyte, not that we're sponsored by Pedialyte, maybe one day. I wish we were. But Pedialyte is actually not like

Nicole Aruffo, RN (09:15)
get nuked.

PD light's pretty good.

specifically the Apple one.

Ed Delesky, MD (09:41)
Sugar

containing or flavored one. But like Pedialyte itself is actually more like the fluid makeup has enough sodium to keep you hydrated. Because that would be a whole medical school lecture to explain hydration and like less water in the body. Anyway, I'm getting off topic, but that's probably the big thing. Sometimes there are medicines that can help nausea get better. I think people have different opinions on whether you should use them.

in an infectious cause or not, but that's not for this episode. And if your symptoms feel like they've been going on for longer than they should, just reach out to your doctor. realize it might be a little hard to get in touch with some people, but, or we'll get help if you need it. So that's neurovirus. Do you have any thoughts about neurovirus or gastroenteritis? No. You felt like that was decent non-medical advice about the hydration? Yeah. Okay. Great.

So thanks for coming back to another episode of Your Checkup. Hopefully you were able to learn something about Norovirus for yourself, a loved one, or...

Nicole Aruffo, RN (10:45)
a neighbor who's puking and having diarrhea.

Ed Delesky, MD (10:48)
Come

back next week for another episode. Please share us with a loved one or a neighbor to learn something about health or whatever you might learn on this episode. Check out our Instagram, our TikTok. Send us some fan mail. Please, we're listening for it. We're reading your fan mail. And check out our website. But until next time, stay healthy, my friends. I'm Ed Daleski. I'm Nicole Aruffo Thank you and goodbye. Bye.

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Nicole Aruffo, RN (11:54)
I am not your nurse.