A potentially more contagious norovirus strain is spreading, causing record-high infections this year.
A new strain of norovirus may be circulating, potentially leaving fewer people with immunity, according to Lynn Roberts, an epidemiologist with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Roberts, and several infectious disease experts for comment and confirmation via email on Saturday morning. New strains of viruses are not uncommon, typically arising from mutations or genetic recombination.
They can lead to larger outbreaks due to less widespread immunity. The CDC notes that immunity to norovirus after infection is short-term, lasting from a few months to about a year, on average. The highly contagious illness has reached its highest levels for this time of year in more than a decade, according to the latest CDC data. The CDC has reported 91 outbreaks during the week of December 5, up from an average of 65 during the same period from 2012 to 2020.'This year the number of reported norovirus outbreaks have exceeded the numbers that we've seen recently and in the years before the pandemic,' a spokesperson for the CDC told Newsweek in an email Friday.The illness causes an average of 900 deaths annually, mostly among older adults, along with 109,000 hospitalizations and 19 million to 21 million cases in the U.S. each year. In an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio on Friday, Roberts, who noted the record high number of infections in the state in December, said, 'We've had the same kind of dominant strain throughout the country for about 10 years or so, and this year, we have a new one on the scene that's taking over.' Norovirus is the leading cause of foodborne illness in the U.S., responsible for nearly 58 percent of foodborne infections annually. A tiny dose of just 10 viral particles can make a person ill, making it one of the most easily transmissible pathogen
NOROVIRUS OUTBREAK IMMUNITY VIRAL INFECTION PUBLIC HEALTH
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