Why everyone has a gnarly stomach bug right now, explained in one chart
by Keren Landman, MD
Jan 8, 2025, 6:00 AM CST
You’re not imagining it: An unusually large number of Americans are barfing these days. Ninety-one norovirus outbreaks were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during the first week of December (shown in the orange line in the chart below), the latest week for which data is available. That’s more than have been reported at this time of year at any time since 2012.
The viral stomach bug, which causes intense but blessedly short episodes of vomiting and diarrhea — with or without a brief period of fever, chills, and body aches — normally spreads in the wintertime and recedes in warmer months. This year’s uptick has been more ferocious than usual, with more outbreaks bubbling up earlier than in pandemic years (shown in the blue lines) and pre-pandemic years (which fall within the gray-shaded area).
Additionally, at the end of December, nearly 23 percent of people were testing positive for norovirus at a sampling of clinical laboratories across the country — an extraordinarily high proportion, way above the typical peak of 10 to 15 percent. The CDC’s figures, while useful for comparing patterns year to year, are a significant underestimate of real-world norovirus spread, says Lee-Ann Jaykus, a North Carolina State University microbiologist who directs NoroCORE, a food virology collaboration among multiple federal agencies. “The numbers are really ish-y,” she says.
https://www.vox.com/even-better/393811/norovirus-surge-vomiting-diarrhea-stomach-bug
= new reply since forum marked as read
Other than a quick trip to the grocery store once or twice a week, my sister doesn't go out much. This virus is very contagious, and I guess that's why a lot of people are wearing facemasks these days. It's not for Covid, it's for the flu bug.
