Nova Scotia - Norovirus hits Halifax hospital, nursing home

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Norovirus hits Halifax hospital, nursing home

Last Updated: Monday, March 15, 2010 | 5:58 PM AT

CBC News


A general surgery unit at the Infirmary site of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax is closed to visitors because of an outbreak of the norovirus.

So far, four patients and one staff member have fallen ill with the stomach flu.

The norovirus ? which causes nausea, vomiting and diarrhea ? usually isn't life-threatening unless the patient is very elderly or becomes dehydrated, John Gillis, spokesman for the Capital District Health Authority, said Monday. But it is the kind of outbreak that requires extra cleaning and precautions, he said.

"It comes on very quickly, usually within 12 hours of being exposed, so it will hit you quickly," Gillis said.

"It's really easy to spread, so the best way to slow the spread is to restrict people from coming in, and people in the unit from moving around the hospital."

Unless there are compassionate reasons, he said, no visitors will be admitted to the surgery unit.
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Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2010/03/15/ns-norovirus-outbreak-capital-health.html#ixzz0iIXaYC2Z

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Re: Nova Scotia - Norovirus hits Halifax hospital, nursing home

Norovirus fears force another ban on visitors

Halifax Health Watch
METRO HALIFAX

March 23, 2010 1:10 a.m.

As one unit opens, another closes.

Still scrambling to contain an outbreak of norovirus in HRM, Capital Health is lifting a visitor ban on one unit as it closes off another.

Nursing unit 6.2 at the Halifax Infirmary site of the QEII Health Sciences Centre will now be closed to visitors, except for compassionate reasons, after some patients fell ill with norovirus-like symptoms.

The ban is being lifted from unit 4.1, also at the Halifax Infirmary site.

That ban took place eight days ago after four patients and one staff member became ill. A nursing home in

Musquodoboit Harbour had its visitor ban lifted last week.
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http://www.metronews.ca/halifax/local/article/484877--norovirus-fears-force-another-ban-on-visitors

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Re: Nova Scotia - Norovirus hits Halifax hospital, nursing home

Illness hits 3 Halifax care facilities

Last Updated: Sunday, March 28, 2010 | 7:12 PM AT

CBC News

A norovirus-like illness has caused several Nova Scotia hospitals and long-term care facilities to place restrictions on visitors.

Haliburton Place, a long-term facility at Hants Community Hospital, is the latest location to impose visitor restrictions because of the norovirus-like illness, which is like a stomach flu.

Over the weekend, a nursing unit at Dartmouth General Hospital and another nursing unit at the Halifax Infirmary were also closed to visitors, except for compassionate reasons.

Carmen MacKenzie, a spokesperson at the Capital District Health Authority, said nursing homes and hospitals can be easy places for the virus to spread.

"Just as this spreads easily on, say, a cruise ship or in an elementary school, where a lot of people are in a small, confined space, that's the same thing with a hospital or a nursing home and it's just living in close proximity," MacKenzie said.

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Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2010/03/28/nb-halifax-norovirus-hospital-647.html#ixzz0jW3lh5Gb