Norwalk virus strikes Preeceville and Yorkton<script src="http://m1.2mdn.net/879366/flashwrite_1_2.js"></script>
Pamela Cowan, The Leader-Post
Published: Friday, January 05, 2007
Visitors are being restricted at the Preeceville Lions Lodge and the Yorkton Regional Hospital because of outbreaks of the volatile Norwalk virus.
The Norwalk virus struck the long-term facility in Preeceville on Monday and First West, a medical ward at the Yorkton Regional Hospital, on Wednesday.
"You have to take strict isolation precautions and hopefully contain it because it can spread it so easily," said Joe Kirwan, CEO of the Yorkton-based Sunrise Health Region.
As a precaution, visitors at Yorkton's hospital are limited to just fathers on the obstetrics ward, parents on the pediatrics ward and immediate family members on the intensive care and palliative care units.
"If this thing gets out of hand, we'll have to lock the whole hospital down," Kirwan said. "We've had more outbreaks this year than we've ever seen. It just doesn't seem to want to quit."
An eight-day outbreak occurred at the Yorkton Regional Hospital in September. Later that month the virus struck the Yorkton and District Nursing Home for 19 days and the Canora Gateway Lodge for 13 days.
The virus hit Norquay's long-term care facility for 10 days in October and St. Anthony's Hospital in Esterhazy suffered a seven-day outbreak. In November visiting restrictions were enforced at the Yorkton Regional Health Centre during a 12-day outbreak. Since September, there have also been eight alerts at facilities in the Sunrise Health Region, Kirwan said.
Throughout the province, the Norwalk virus peaked about a month ago, but the number of diagnosed cases in 2006 was almost four times the yearly average, said Dr. Ross Findlater, Saskatchewan's chief medical health officer.
As of last Friday, there were 831 positive cases of Norwalk virus in the province, he said.
"That's high," Findlater said. "In 2004 there were 189 and in 2005 there were 231.
"At one point about two months ago, I asked which health regions hadn't had any cases and there were only one or two."
It's hard to pinpoint why Norwalk was so prevalent in 2006 but it could mean the genetic makeup of the virus has changed, he said.
"One of the factors in the big numbers this fall is likely that the outbreaks in facilities have been detected and a lot of testing was done around those outbreaks, particularly at the beginning," he said. "It's also a problem in other parts of Canada and the U.S. so it's not something unique to Saskatchewan."
Thorough handwashing and infection control procedures in hospitals and long-term facilities can stem the spread of the Norwalk virus, Findlater said.
Since there isn't a specific treatment for the Norwalk virus, there isn't any benefit to going quickly to a doctor to be tested, he said.
Although institutional outbreaks have been publicized, Norwalk virus has been in communities as well, said Findlater, who added that the disease has a low mortality rate and people usually recover within 48 hours.
"The important thing in a community setting if you have diarrhea and vomiting is to make sure that you're drinking enough to replace the liquid you're losing, stay home and let somebody else do the food preparation," he said.
