Norwalk-like virus hits area nursing home.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

About a dozen residents of a local nursing home became ill last weekend in an outbreak of a Norwalk-like virus, the same bug that sickened cruise ship customers last summer.

It was the third local nursing home or assisted-living facility to be hit this winter with Norwalk or Norwalk-like viruses, said Betsy Meredith, a nursing supervisor at Lane County Public Health. Department officials declined to identify the nursing homes.

State public health officials say they've noticed an increase in the number of Norwalk outbreaks at nursing homes around the state, but that may be because of more awareness and better reporting.

The viruses are part of a family of noroviruses, which cause short-lived gastro-intestinal illness. Symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps typically last only one or two days and usually don't require medical attention.

Noroviruses were blamed for a series of outbreaks that hit the cruise ship industry last year.

People get infected by eating food contaminated with the virus, touching surfaces or objects contaminated with the virus and then putting their hands in their mouths, or by direct contact with someone who is infected and showing symptoms.

Meredith said nursing home operators have been cooperative in working with public health officials and taking the necessary steps to nip outbreaks in the bud. That means keeping sick people away from well people; having staff members wear masks when around people who are sick; and sanitizing linens and kitchens.

Paul Cieslak, who manages the state's communicable disease program, said while his office is aware of more Norwalk outbreaks, "it's hard for us to say if it's a true increase or if it's just being reported to us better."

Three Norwalk-like virus outbreaks were reported at Oregon nursing homes in 2001 and 12 in 2002. Health officials have logged three already this year statewide, Cieslak said.

Several factors may help explain the increase, he said.

His office "has gotten much more compulsive about trying to log these things," he said. Also, the state public health laboratory is now testing for Norwalk-like viruses, so more people are sending in specimens. And state health officials have developed a better relationship with nursing homes, he said.

Nursing homes can be more susceptible to such outbreaks than other health care facilities, such as hospitals. That's because people live in nursing homes, move around a lot and have contact with other residents and staff, Cieslak said.