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Hello,


Well, I just posted the first couple of sentences to this article from a medical journal. I just did it because the second sentence was intriguing to me. It says basically that doctors/scientists developed diagnostic techniques that are able to identify that a virus is a norovirus and that it has led to increased "recognition" of stomach illnesses as being caused by these.


The article is from 2004, not too long ago. So, the reason I decided to put it here is because I think it relates to our frequent discussions of feeling that stomach viruses are so much more prevalent "now" (whenever that is) than in "the past" (whenever exactly that is). Sometime prior to 2004, identification of norovirus became more possible for scientists. Sometime around 2002, I remember hearing a whole heck of a lot on the news about Norwalk virus, and I've heard about it ever since. Doesn't the fact that stomach virus outbreaks now have a name like this attached and the fact that they know so much more about these viruses than they did in say, 1970 contribute to our hearing more about them? That thus in turn could contribute to our believing that they are so much more prevalent and more threatening.


I don't know. It's just a thought.











Trends Microbiol. 2004 Jun;12(6):279-87.</TD>
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Norovirus disease: changing epidemiology and host susceptibility factors.

Hutson AM, Atmar RL, Estes MK.

Department of Molecular Virology &amp; Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza BCM-385, Houston, TX 77030, USA.

Noroviruses cause the majority of acute viral gastroenteritis cases that occur worldwide. The increased recognition of noroviruses as the cause of outbreaks and sporadic disease is due to the recent availability of improved norovirus-specific diagnostics. </DD>Edited by: japa