Chinanews.com, Beijing, February 22. During the Spring Festival season, the disease control departments in many places reminded to prevent acute infectious diarrhea caused by norovirus. In the past ten days, the WeChat public account of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention released three norovirus-related health tips.
So, what is norovirus?
How can we prevent it?
Norovirus is a highly contagious pathogen that is mainly transmitted through the fecal-oral route, including ingestion of contaminated food, water, contact with patient excreta or vomit, contact with contaminated hands, objects or utensils, ingestion of feces or Aerosols produced by vomitus, etc.
Shellfish such as oysters and raw fruits and vegetables are common foods that cause outbreaks.
Norovirus can be excreted with feces. If feces contaminate drinking water, food, vegetables, etc., other people can drink the contaminated water or eat the contaminated food, which can cause infection.
"Norovirus is one of the common causes of our acute gastroenteritis outbreaks, and it is also one of the most common pathogens of acute gastroenteritis in our children." Zhong Xuemei, director of the Department of Gastroenterology at the Capital Institute of Pediatrics, introduced that norovirus infection is generally It is easy to be infected in densely populated places, such as nursery institutions, kindergartens, and schools, which are places where outbreaks are likely to occur.
According to the "Norovirus Family Prevention Tips" issued by the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, norovirus is characterized by short incubation period, rapid mutation, strong environmental resistance, diverse transmission routes, and low infection dose. Infection can occur, especially in the cold season from October to March of the next year, which is the high incidence season of norovirus epidemic.
Zhong Xuemei introduced that after being infected with norovirus, the common clinical manifestations are vomiting, diarrhea, and some manifestations of abdominal pain, while fever is relatively mild.
"For children, vomiting symptoms are actually the most prominent, so these children show acute vomiting. He can vomit three or five times a day, or seven or eight times, or even a dozen times, so for these children, he The vomiting symptom is a very important manifestation of this disease that we noticed. In addition to vomiting, it can also have watery stools, and there are no obvious white blood cells and red blood cells in the routine stool tests, and there can be fever, but the fever is generally mild Moderate to moderate, this kind of fever around 38 degrees Celsius."
Experts said that currently there is no specific antiviral drug or vaccine for norovirus, and after infection, relief of symptoms and supportive treatment are the main methods; prevention and control of non-drug preventive measures are more important.
"Norovirus infection is a viral disease. There is no specific antiviral drug for Norovirus. In addition, it is not a bacterial infection, so we do not need to use antibiotics. Use antibiotics In the future, it will disturb the microecology of our intestines and prolong the course of the disease."
Zhong Xuemei said that after norovirus infection, symptomatic and supportive treatment is required, among which prevention of dehydration is the most critical. For most children, oral rehydration is enough. "For a small number of children who vomit very frequently and cannot eat, We just adopted the method of intravenous rehydration, and we should pay attention to eating some soft, easy-to-digest food in terms of diet, and we must eat less and more meals."
Experts suggest that the antibodies produced after norovirus infection have no obvious protective effect, and repeated infections are very prone to occur.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop good hygiene habits to prevent diseases from entering the mouth.
"Teach children to pay attention to hand hygiene, wash their hands carefully, and wash their hands with running water and soap. Because alcohol cannot kill norovirus, the disinfectant for hand washing containing alcohol is also ineffective against norovirus of."
At the same time, Zhong Xuemei said, be careful not to go to crowded places, and wear a mask when going out. When children are eating, try not to eat raw or cold food or drink raw water. These are ways to prevent norovirus infection.
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