Norovirus presence small in Bigfork

By LAURA BEHENNA

Bigfork Eagle

The recent outbreak of norovirus illness in the Flathead Valley has barely shown itself in Bigfork this winter, local health professionals say.

“We’re on the lookout for it,” Bigfork physician Dr. Thomas Jenko said. Although he has seen a few patients with the typical norovirus symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, they aren’t interested in spending $100 on a medical test that would confirm the virus is present, he said.

“What we do is we assume they have it and we treat it,” he said.

No medication that can kill the virus is available, but there are medications to relieve the vomiting and diarrhea, Jenko said.

“The main thing is [to drink] lots of fluids because you’re losing it from both ends,” he said. Severe fluid loss can lead to dehydration, which can put a person in the hospital for fluid replacement, he added. Very old and very young persons are most vulnerable to this complication.

Fortunately, norovirus has not shown up at Lake View Care Center. The staff is taking aggressive precautions to keep the illness out, nursing director Angie Wilkening said.

“We’re super-vigilant,” she said. Staff members with suspicious symptoms must stay home, visitors with symptoms are asked not to visit the center’s residents until they are well, and workers wash their hands frequently and properly, she said.

Wilkening cautioned that alcohol-based “hand sanitizers” don’t kill norovirus, and that plain old soap and water are much more effective. She recommends washing hands for a full 20 seconds, as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advise.

The CDC says that once norovirus enters a care facility like Lake View, 70 to 80 percent of the residents will catch the illness, Wilkening said.

“It’s so very contagious and debilitating for this population,” she said. “It can be much more devastating for these people up here” than for younger, healthier persons.

People’s immune systems start to decline as they get older, around age 50, Wilkening said. Elderly people such as nursing home residents can catch norovirus twice within one week, while younger people could be immune to the illness for six months, she said.

Often mistaken for food poisoning, norovirus is very contagious and can spread rapidly, usually by hand-to-mouth contact after touching a person or item with the virus. The common symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramping. Low fever, muscle aches and tiredness may be present. The illness usually starts suddenly and lasts one to two days.

The most important ways to limit spread of norovirus are good hand-washing, disinfecting with a bleach-based cleaner and staying home when sick.

People infected with norovirus are contagious from the time they become ill to at least three days after recovery.

The Flathead City-County Health Department asks people who have been ill to not prepare meals for others until 72 hours after the symptoms have stopped. The Montana Department of Health and Human Services recommends that food handlers and people who provide direct care to others not return to work until 72 hours after the symptoms stop.