Can noro last only 6 hours?

[surfer777]

Hey everyone,

A little backstory. I tend to visit the forums when times are "bad." As in, looking for support I can't seem to find anywhere else, asking questions when I'm concerned about an experience, etc. The past year or two (don't remember how long it's been since my last post) have been pretty good for me. I handled quite a few bad experiences really well (involving vomit).

But I've recently taken a couple of new jobs, and I feel like I'm being pushed until I break. The first job has been plagued with nasty colds. I have successfully dodged those thus far. But the second job seemed to have picked up where the first job left off. The whole office is hacking and sniffling and I'm going nuts! I've done a good job avoiding those colds as well, thus far. I'm sure my number is up soon. Anyways, the cold prevention and worry has worn me down. So when I went into work at the first job today, the receptionist was telling me about how my buddy at work had been throwing up last night. Freaked me out a bit, but I managed to stay calm. Until he SHOWED UP. He comes in and sits in my little office and tells me the story! I'll spare you the details, but here are the key points:

1. His little baby (almost 1.5 years old) had thrown up in his crib Friday night, and my buddy cleaned it up. Not sure if his wife helped.
2. Sunday afternoon around 5pm my buddy started feeling sick and threw up.
3. By 10 or 11pm, he had thrown up one last time and felt back to normal.
4. His wife started feeling sick and throwing up around 8 or 9pm the same night. I believe she was feeling better and eating this morning.

So naturally, my gut reaction is "oh crap, noro." But part of me thinks this was just a bizarre food poisoning case, and isn't contagious. The only reason I'd think it was noro is because his baby threw up Friday, and then my buddy threw up two days later. What do you guys think? Does this sound like noro or something non-contagious food poisoning? My buddy thinks it was food poisoning because he and his wife both got sick within a short time of each other, and they had the same thing for lunch.

What's bothering me is, if it's contagious, who knows if he still had some contagious particles in his mouth while he was talking to me? Could I have been exposed to this God-awful virus??

Anyways, I apologize if this is too graphic for some, and for my distance from the boards lately. This experience broke the camel's back, so to speak. I got home and got in the shower and scrubbed individual parts of my body for 20 seconds (exposed skin, like arms and neck, etc). I can usually get over something like this with ease lately, but since he was sick last night and I saw him before even a full day had passed, I'm a wreck. Many thanks for any and all opinions. And please, don't sugar coat anything. If you think it's noro, be straight up with it so I can mentally prepare for the worst, should it come to that.

[gumdropper1]

That definitely sounds like noro to me. The key fact is that the baby threw up on Friday night and the parents both got sick and vomited on Sunday. That's the incubation period for noro.

And to answer your title question, yes, noro can last as little as six hours. Often, there are no more symptoms after the victim vomits the first time.

[Miss_Pink24]

It does sound like noro to me unfortunately, due to the incubation period he experienced and stuff. The good news is though is it is unlikely that you'll get it. You have to actually ingest infected vomit and/or diarrhoea particles to pick it up, not from him talking to you. It is very unlikely that he'd have any particles in his mouth as I am sure he would have brushed his teeth since the incident and they don't hang around that long in the mouth after vomiting because of the amount of swallowing we do. And it really isn't transferred that way; you can't breathe it in unless you were standing right over him when he was vomiting. Just keep up with the standard hand washing before eating and putting your fingers in your mouth or nose and you should be fine.

[surfer777]

That's unfortunately what I was expecting people to think. I know it's unlikely I'll catch it from him speaking, I'm more concerned about his personal hygiene. I know his hygiene habits are pretty much awful. We handle a lot of the same papers and files at work and I'm mostly concerned about touching anything he touches since he likely won't have washed his hands. And since he'll be contagious for at least 3 days after feeling better, I'm stuck worrying about this basically until next Monday! Can't wait for tax season to be over...

Thanks for the replies and confirmation on noro. I suppose there's still a chance it could be food poisoning since he said his baby wasn't sick at all other than the one event in his crib. But I'm still going with noro.

[Martha19]

That's unfortunately what I was expecting people to think. I know it's unlikely I'll catch it from him speaking, I'm more concerned about his personal hygiene. I know his hygiene habits are pretty much awful. We handle a lot of the same papers and files at work and I'm mostly concerned about touching anything he touches since he likely won't have washed his hands. And since he'll be contagious for at least 3 days after feeling better, I'm stuck worrying about this basically until next Monday! Can't wait for tax season to be over...

Thanks for the replies and confirmation on noro. I suppose there's still a chance it could be food poisoning since he said his baby wasn't sick at all other than the one event in his crib. But I'm still going with noro.

Yeah I'd treat it like noro just to be safe. As long as you wash your hands before you eat and avoid the guy as much as you can you'll be ok. I absolutely hate people like that, if you're sick, stay home. It's that simple. I have a friend with twins that's like "Hey come over and hang out! Bring your daughter!" and I was in the porch about to leave and she says to me "Yeah Sophia was sick all night last night and her brother seems a bit off now but I'm sure they'll be OK to play!" so I'm like "Alright, coat off! Back upstairs!". Some people..

[surfer777]

Drives me crazy. I mean I understand you don't want to take time off of work and get behind, but it isn't about that...staying home while you're sick (especially the day after you've been throwing up) is a courtesy to others. Granted, some employers are idiots when it comes to sick days. One of the jobs I'm at gives you 3 sick days, and you aren't supposed to use vacation days for sick days. Stupid. But this job with this guy...if he needed to take time off, it wouldn't be an issue. His dad runs the company! It's a small tax accounting firm so I certainly understand why he'd come in if he was feeling fine, but most people don't seem to understand how these bugs work. Very similar to your friend with the twins! "Oh my kids are throwing up but they'll be OK to play" is never OK!

Anyways, I made it a little over 24 hours. 48 left, at the very least. I figure he'll still be shedding any virus until Thursday at the earliest, so in reality, I need to make the next week and a half to be "completely" clear (as if there is such a thing). I'm still amazed that noro could be so short lived. Nearly every account I've read of it involves at least a day of misery, and a couple of days to get back to 100%.

[redastrid]

I'm not convinced it was noro, especially since the baby only v* once. I think it was probably some random incident with the baby and likely that the couple ate something a little weird. Treat it as noro though just in case!

[surfer777]

I'm not sure what to make of it...I'm very on the fence, which isn't a bad spot, I suppose. I just hate freaking out about HIGHLY unlikely events. Like getting sick from him not washing his hands and touching the files at work, especially since I wash my hands obsessively. Or having to wash all my exposed skin because I fear contagious particles are floating around in the air. Maybe they're not all that unlikely?

[tiredofitall]

Go with the noro. When my youngest was 9 months old he was acting off during dinner and didn't eat, then after his bottle he v all over our bedroom floor while I was holding him. It just happened once so I didn't think much of it. Well 48 hours later I woke up in the middle of the night with n and d. I also was on the verge of v for about 12 or so hours but fought it off. My point is my son definitely has a sv even though he only v once.

[Truche]

That sounds like noro