The Iowa Department of Public Health has alerted people to be on guard as there have been reports of an increase in norovirus illness across the state in recent weeks.
Norovirus is sometimes called a 'stomach bug.' This virus can spread quickly from person-to-person, especially in crowded, closed places like schools, hotels and daycare centers.
Norovirus infection is highly contagious and it causes acute gastroenteritis. Its symptoms usually include diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and stomach cramping. There is neither a vaccine to prevent norovirus infection nor a specific drug to treat people with norovirus illness. More more than 20 million gastroenteritis cases are caused by norovirus each year in the U.S., according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC.
Warning people of the continuing norovirus outbreak, the Iowa Department of Public Health Medical Director, Dr. Patricia Quinlisk in a statement said, "With this virus in our communities and because it is so easy to spread, we need everybody to stay home when they are ill with diarrhea and vomiting. There's no vaccine and no antibiotics for norovirus. It can spread in food, in the air, by shaking hands and by touching things like door knobs that an ill person has touched. So the only way to stop its spread is for those who are ill to stay home."
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