I know loads of people are panicking over the news in the UK and the reports about noro. Anyway, I checked out the HPA site, as that's where all the stats come from, and the real picture is this:
"Figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) show a drop in the number of hospital outbreaks of norovirus from 53 in the two weeks to November 25 2012 down to 40 in the two weeks to the 2 December 2012."
Number of reports received: - week 45 - 286/ week 46 - 312/ week 47 -306/ week 48 -108
Looking at the graphs, average reports for this time of year look to be around 100, or maybe a bit less.
So, yes, there's been a blip, with a few weeks of higher than average number of cases, but it looks like we're not far from being back to normal now. Noro isn't 'everywhere', it's actually very far from it, but obviously that doesn't make for a big news story, does it?
Full HPA report is here for anyone wanting the facts, rather than the news slant which, if nothing else, is out of date http://www.hpa.org.uk/hpr/infections...c.htm#comm4952