Pennsylvania - Norovirus cases 2012

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St. Anne School
375 Hickory Street Bethlehem, PA

CONTINUED MEDICAL CONCERNS

As reported last Tuesday via the OneCall system, the school community continues to experience a larger than normal absenteeism due to the stomach virus. At this time, I am encouraging you to keep your son or daughter home from school if they are displaying any symptoms of a stomach flu. I would also like to remind everyone that individual water bottles are permitted on a daily basis.

No Catholic Schools Week events will be rescheduled until the cold and flu season has passed. Thank you for your attention and understanding in this matter. Mrs. Filler

http://www.stannebethlehem.org/

 

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Re: Pennsylvania - Norovirus cases 2012

Contagious stomach bug hitting the area

By Tim Darragh
The Morning Call
March 19, 2012

It might be little consolation, but if you've recently suffered through one of those out-of-nowhere, awful bouts of vomiting or diarrhea for a day or two, you're not alone. A wave of temporary but debilitating gastrointestinal illnesses has been sweeping the region, according to hospital officials.
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"Community outbreaks on a yearly basis are inevitable," said Dr. Jeff Jahre, section chief of infectious diseases at St. Luke's University Health Network. "Is this year worse than other years? Anecdotally, it seems to be that way."

Jahre said 30-50 people a day have been reporting to emergency departments throughout the network for a number of weeks.
Lehigh Valley Hospital also has seen a number of cases of people with gastrointestinal illness, but it hasn't reached the level of an outbreak, said spokesman Brian Downs. Allentown Health Bureau has not seen a spike in cases of the illness.

Downs and Jahre said most patients recover without needing to be hospitalized.

What's likely at work is some type of norovirus, the most common cause of "stomach bugs" in the United States.

More...
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120319/NEWS90/120319709/-1/NEWS

 

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Re: Pennsylvania - Norovirus cases 2012

Stomach bug hits Pocono Medical Center

By Howard Frank
Pocono Record Writer
June 07, 2012

...Since May 12, Pocono Medical Center reported at least 30 employees with gastrointestinal symptoms similar to those caused by a particular virus called a norovirus. A hospital spokesman said it wasn't classified as an outbreak.
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The hospital's infectious diseases director, Dr. Susheer Gandotra, said in March that the entire Pocono region was experiencing three times the normal occurrences of the virus.

"Pocono Medical Center has experienced the same kind of increased activity as the rest of the community," hospital spokesman Geoffrey Roche said.

The reports of stomach illnesses affected about 1.6 out of every 100 of Pocono Medical Center's 1,900 staff members.
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Full text:
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120607/NEWS/206070337/-1/NEWS