What is the norovirus?
The norovirus is a group of viruses responsible for the majority of stomach flu infections and cases of diarrhea worldwide. In a stomach flu infection, there's about a 50% chance that norovirus is the culprit. The virus is highly contagious and spreads quickly, especially among people with blood type O, who are more prone to infection than those with other blood types. The virus spreads easily through direct contact with infected individuals, surfaces, or food.
Norovirus symptoms
Diarrhea is one of the symptoms of norovirus. It is usually accompanied by vomiting. An infected person shows these symptoms between 15 and 48 hours after exposure to the virus. The vomiting happens suddenly and forcefully, often referred to as explosive or projectile vomiting. Fever, headaches, abdominal/stomach pain, and muscle aches are other common norovirus symptoms. Some people may be infected but show no symptoms; however, they can still be contagious to others.
Norovirus treatment and prevention
Stomach flu caused by the norovirus typically resolves on its own within four days at most. If symptoms persist, it's wise to contact a doctor. There is no specific medication to treat the virus, so the patient needs to recover naturally. Due to vomiting and diarrhea, dehydration is a risk. Infected individuals should ensure they take in enough fluids, sugars, and salts.
To prevent norovirus infection from others, proper hygiene is essential. Wash and sanitize hands after using the toilet and clean with disinfecting agents. Someone with norovirus should ideally use a separate toilet until their symptoms have disappeared. Besides the toilet, light switches, door handles, and other frequently touched surfaces should also be disinfected regularly.
Disinfection As A Service (DAAS)
Healthcare or VVT institution?
Watter has developed the DAAS concept especially for the healthcare and VVT sector. Always a safe, user friendly and effective disinfectant at your fingertips.
Norovirus is the most common cause of foodborne disease outbreaks
Contamination does not always occur through people. The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) records outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, with norovirus usually emerging as the leading cause. Most people have heard of outbreaks on cruise ships, in healthcare facilities, or at schools. In these cases, hundreds of people can be infected simultaneously through food. Every year, approximately 600,000 people suffer from gastroenteritis due to the norovirus.
The types of food most commonly contaminated with norovirus are raw shellfish like oysters and mussels, as a result of the water in which they are grown or harvested. Fruits and vegetables can also be contaminated. Importantly, norovirus can also be transmitted through the processing water in factories where food is handled.
Surface disinfection with atomization prevents spreading
If a norovirus infection has occurred in your hospital or healthcare facility, you naturally want to prevent another outbreak. Surface disinfection using fogging with our Watter disinfection solution is your best strategy. With the use of our foggers, each space (and thus all surfaces in that space) is disinfected by tiny droplets (5 microns in size), which kill the virus particles. The solution from our system also makes it easy to wipe down tables, chairs, and door handles, significantly reducing the risk of contamination through droplets.
Producers of shellfish, fruits, and vegetables must be proactive in tackling biofilm. Bacteria (including Salmonella and E. coli) and viruses (including norovirus) need to be eliminated. Traditional disinfection with chemicals has drawbacks, especially in the food industry. Chemicals are toxic and must not come into contact with food. Rinsing pipelines in between is only a temporary solution, and achieving the correct dosage of chemicals is challenging. If too little disinfectant is used, all effort is wasted; if too much is used, it becomes expensive, as chemicals are not cheap, as we know.
Watter safely and effectively keeps your rooms and surfaces virus-free.
Watter is the safer and more effective alternative to chemical disinfection. With your own Watter system, you produce your own biodegradable disinfectant. All you need is electricity, salt, and water. This creates HOCl through electrolysis, which is still effective against microorganisms even at low concentrations. This low dosage makes Watter a sustainable, environmentally friendly, and fully biodegradable product. It can be used in fogging systems, for surface disinfection, and, for example, for disinfecting process/industrial water or medical instruments, ensuring noroviruses have no chance to thrive.
Proven effectiveness against harmful viruses and bacteria.
Watter is not only proven effective against noroviruses, but also against other viruses such as polio, rota and influenza H5N2. TNO has successfully tested it against various bacteria, yeasts and fungi.
Are you ready to take action against norovirus? Then you will discover that using Watter in your process brings many more benefits.