Norovirus at work

[claire43]

Went into work today only to discover a co-worker has got norovirus Apparently she came down with it last Thursday (6 days ago) and was so violently ill her husband called the paramedics!! They stayed with her for a couple of hours monitoring her but said they didnt want to take her to A+E due to the high risk of her spreading it to others. She still is too ill to come into work. I rang her husband to see how she was and he said she stopped v* and d* a few days ago but is so weak that she can only stand for a few mins before she needs to go back to bed.

This is a woman who is never ill. Ive worked there 4 years and the only time off she has taken was a day when she slipped a disc. She only works mon-wed and goes nowhere except work and to the cafe for lunch with the rest of us. Her husband brings her to work and picks her up. What I don't understand is how she could have picked it up? My rational side is saying I'm safe cos she developed it 6 days ago but theres another part of me thats saying I've touched surfaces and office equipment today that she touched last week.

I have felt sick all day. I'm telling myself its anxiety but what if it isnt.......

[mdgirl1977]

She definitely goes out. Meals, grocery stores, errands. There is LIST of places she could get sick from. Honestly. She didn't get it at work. She wasn't sick at work, thank god, and she isn't back at work yet. You have the same risk as a normal person. Poor thing, though.

[claire43]

Thanks for replying. Ye she does do grocery shopping but as we work in the town centre she tends to do it on her lunch break with the rest of us. She never goes out for a meal or socially - shes very set in her ways. She has no grandchildren and I would have said she is very low risk of catching a sv and yet she did! I'm seriously anxious. By the sound of things she was desperately ill - there wasnt anything the paramedics or doctor could give her cos she wasnt able to keep anything down even though she hadnt eaten anything but toast and cups of tea the whole day before she got sick.

[mdgirl1977]

it could have been on a door knob or the packets of toast or something. there are many ways and all she had to do was not wash her hands before eating.

[claire43]

Its too scary! If its that easy to pick up it must be just a matter of time. Out of 4 to 7 employees that work on any one day ( I work in a small optometrist business) every single one has v* in the 4 years since I started working there except me. I feel like its my turn next.

[Syrup]

Its too scary! If its that easy to pick up it must be just a matter of time. Out of 4 to 7 employees that work on any one day ( I work in a small optometrist business) every single one has v* in the 4 years since I started working there except me. I feel like its my turn next.

People v* from all sorts of things. Not always sv*. There are no 'turns' with Norovirus, you get it or you don't. Try to remain calm. From the sounds of it, this woman is a bit older. Older adults DO catch things easier than young adults AND n* can be a sign of a variety of sicknesses. Whatever she caught has NOTHING to do with you. If she had a cold last week you wouldn't assume that you were going to catch it, so try to see it the same way. She's improving from he sounds of it and it's over. Her husband has stayed well and he's right there caring for her! There's absolutely no reason for you to assume that you're going to get sick. Try to focus on something else and put this in the back of you mind. It's over and done with; yes it was unfortunate but these things happen sometimes. Now, what can you focus on that's positive? Can you get together with friends or plan to watch a fun movie tonight?

[claire43]

Thank you for trying to talk sense into me. I am ashamed at how I reacted to this news today. On the outside I'm very sane but inside I'm a seething mass of anxiety almost constantly. When something like this happens I literally fall apart with the what ifs.... By the sound of things there would be NO stopping v* with this strain which has totally got to me. Another work colleague said its raging through our local area and several wards have been closed in a nearby hospital (approx 1 mile from my house)

[SilentFrog]

Ok, so first things first, let me just say that you honestly have nothing to be ashamed of, absolutely nothing. I defy anybody who is on this site not to have panicked to the point of falling apart at least once in their lives from emet... Even me, a seemingly rational, scientific minded person can and has fallen apart over people around me getting ill, that's just what this phobia does to us and there is nothing to be ashamed of, we are what we are and you're amongst friends here

So secondly, let's clear up the myth about this norovirus being a particularly violent and unpleasant strain. There are, broadly speaking, three types of norovirus which can infect humans and whilst it is true that some of the strains are more contagious and resilient than others - that is to say they can survive longer on surfaces so spread more easily - catching one strain over another is not going to make you more or less ill. Everybody's immune system will react differently to the virus, and it just so happens that some people are unfortunate enough to have been born with a genetic makeup that makes them react particularly badly to the norovirus, from the sounds of it your friend happens to be one of them. Equally though there are some people whose genetic makeup makes them more resistant to the norovirus (and how we all envy them!), so please don't get yourself all worked up over how ill your friend has been. Even in the worst case scenario, if you did catch it (and I'll get to that in a minute), there is no guarantee that you will be as ill as your friend, in fact, you might not even v*, you might just have d* or n* or stomach pains etc. Everybody reacts differently.

Ok, so now let's get into your original post, you're worried that you too might have picked up the SV from the same place as your friend. So as others have pointed out, had you picked up the SV from the same place as your friend, you would have fallen ill already, so there's definitely no chance that you caught something when she did. I know you say that she never gets ill and that she hardly goes out anywhere but there is still a reason she's picked it up, and that reason is that somewhere along the line, she's touched her face, or eaten something without washing her hands.

Now it could be that she used the toilet at the grocery store, came out of the cubicle and rubber her chin before she washed her hands, or perhaps she rubbed her eyes or scratched her nose. It doesn't really matter, the point is that there is a reason she got ill and you didn't, and that is because she wasn't careful with her hand hygiene but you were. As I always say, it still remains that the most effective way of preventing yourself from getting ill - and seriously never underestimate how significantly it reduces your risk - is to wash your hands.

Simply by washing your hands before you touch your face and before you eat or drink, you can reduce your chances of getting ill to almost statistical insignificance. As others before me have said, read the threads here of those of us who have been trapped in a house with people who are ill and contagious, many of us have escaped unharmed simply by keeping to those basic hygiene rules. It almost seems too simple to work, but I promise you it does.

We've analysed countless norovirus outbreaks and the link in the chain is almost always that people didn't wash their hands. Even if the person who's infected doesn't wash their hands, you can still avoid it by washing yours, and by not eating or drinking anything prepared or handled by someone who has been ill in the last 48 hours. I mean, the news is terrible for misleading you - what they don't tell you is that hospital ward outbreaks are very different to real world outbreaks - the main factor in hospital outbreaks is that somebody who v* in the next bed to someone, spreads tiny virus particles into the nearby area, which land in their water, on their food, and without thinking, that healthy neighbour eats the food, drinks the water and gets infected, and so the cycle continues. And then there are the ward toilets, you have someone who is ill who uses the toilet and infects the next person who uses it with a contaminated door handle, a contaminated tap or flusher etc. And finally you have hospital visitors, people who are ill still go to visit the patients whilst their still contagious, and they spread the virus to the patient, who as described above inadvertently spreads it to the neighbouring beds etc.

The way the news reports it, they make it sound like some rampaging beast whereas really the reasons the virus spreads so rapidly through the hospitals is quite simple, it's the same principals at play, people not washing their hands, eating contaminated food or drink etc. Remember, just as not everyone who is on a norovirus infected ward will catch the norovirus, not everyone who works with people who come down with the norovirus will catch it from them. Remember your basic hygiene and you'll be absolutely fine

I hope that helps and I hope I haven't scared you or made you more anxious, I just feel I owe it to you to explain what they won't tell you on the news reports, since we're all so often guilty of endowing the various SV with evil super powers and abilities.

[claire43]

Wow Silentfrog thank you for taking the time to reply with so much info. I totally get what you are saying, you have explained it so well and it is very nice to be reassured. However if I'm honest I'm still gonna be nervous for a few days, or at least until I feel the risk has gone away. I hate being me sometimes.

[SilentFrog]

That's perfectly normal, it's ok to be nervous and believe me I know how it feels, despite the best will in the world of people on here who come to my rescue when I'm panicking, I never do calm down fully until I know I'm out of the danger zone, there are always those lingering "what if" thoughts which are so hard to shake. I'm glad that you feel at least a little reassured, if I'm honest I was beginning to feel guilty about going into so much detail, sometimes that can be a bad thing and the last thing I wanted to do was give you more reason to worry, quite the opposite in fact..

But the news just makes me so mad sometimes, the way they report these things, the reports are always intended to cause fear and alarm, or as the media outlets would phrase it "educate people about the risks". Sure, it's one thing to educate people about the risks, but in my opinion it is wholly inconsiderate to report on these kind of things without also putting things into perspective, sure the local hospital ward has closed due to infection, but that doesn't mean ordinary people are any more likely to catch the illness, especially not if they wash their hands properly.

I digress, sorry, managed to turn that into a bit of a rant there! Anyway, I'm glad I didn't end up worrying you (at least I hope I didn't)