While cold snaps of influenza, RSV, and COVID-19 are inexorably dwindling, another common pathogen, norovirus, appears to be circulating.
of Norovirus test positive rate According to survey data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the infection rate at the end of January is above the peak rate seen in March last year. Data suggest the virus may have peaked at the national level, but Regional data indicates that cases are still trending upward in the Northeast, Midwest, and West of the United States, while numbers appear to be declining in the South.
Like many infectious diseases, norovirus cases hit rock bottom amid the health restrictions and disruptions of the pandemic. But in 2022, the U.S. has recovered to pre-pandemic levels and surpassed them by one metric. CDC’s Norovirus Sentinel Testing and Tracking (NoroSTAT) network collected data on norovirus outbreaks from 14 collaborating state health departments, and the number of norovirus outbreaks at the end of February 2022 will be the highest in any season since surveillance. We have reported that we have reached the peak of the season. It started in 2012.
This year’s NoroSTAT data are several weeks behind, with outbreak data reported only through early January. Data suggest that the outbreak is steep. But positive test data collected through the CDC’s laboratory-based National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS), he said, will continue through the end of January, and this year’s number of norovirus cases could be even higher than last year. suggests that there is Positive test rates peaked at just over 15% during a record outbreak in 2022. However, by the end of January 2023, it has already reached 16.4%.
Recorded or not, this means there are likely to be many bathroom scourges across the United States now and in the coming weeks. is a highly contagious virus that causes acute gastroenteritis and often causes victims to lose their internal organs due to frequent, violent vomiting and diarrhea. It can also be transmitted through surfaces, food, and liquids. Thorough hand washing is the main way to prevent norovirus infection. Also, it’s important to note that hand sanitizers generally do not work to neutralize norovirus.
The CDC is Norovirus causes an average of 19 million and 21 million cases of diarrheal and vomiting illness each year. In the United States, nearly 1 million children were sent to clinics, over 100,000 were hospitalized, and 900 died. Most of them are people over her 65 years old. Most infections occur between he November and her April, but the virus can occur any time of the year.
The latest wave of infections in the United States comes at a time when the country is still grappling with the spread of COVID-19 while other bacteria are re-establishing their normal cycles. , the United States Abnormally early peak of influenza Asynchronous waves of RSV infection. to declineCOVID-19 also had a relatively mild winter wave, but still averaged 450 deaths per day.
Despite a much lower fatality rate this winter than in early 2022, survey data released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation showed: 38% of US adults say a family member has had either the flu, RSV or COVID-19.