In the gazetteer of human illness, and forever associated with the most common cause of acute infectious gastroenteritis in western Europe and North A

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2024-04-02 23:00:03

In the gazetteer of human illness, and forever associated with the most common cause of acute infectious gastroenteritis in western Europe and North America, is Norwalk in the US state of Ohio.

By 1972, electron microscopy of faeces samples taken from the outbreak identified a novel agent, subsequently named Norwalk virus.

Known today as norovirus, its alias, the “winter vomiting bug”, is a misnomer, with year-round outbreaks occurring, albeit with a winter peak.

For example, data from the HSE’s health protection surveillance centre show that in April, May and June of 2015 there were 25 outbreaks involving 385 people, and by mid-November 2015 a total of 87 outbreaks had affected 1,508 people. Norovirus gastroenteritis has been a notifiable disease in Ireland since January 2004.

Infection control expert Prof Dinah Gould of Cardiff University highlights the mistaken belief that norovirus gastroenteritis is “always without serious consequences and the infection is frequently described as mild and self-limiting”.