Vomiting bug shuts hospital wards - Health - Dinnington Guardian

Vomiting bug shuts hospital wards - Health - Dinnington Guardian

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) publishes regular updates throughout the year on the number of norovirus outbreaks that have occurred in hospitals. The latest figures from the HPA reported that between November 28 and December 11 2011, they received 15 reports of suspected or confirmed norovirus outbreaks in hospitals in England, and 12 of these (80%) had led to ward closures or restricted admissions.
The HPA reports in the overall number of norovirus outbreaks in last year’s season (running from July 2010 – June 2011) there were a total of 1,164 suspected or confirmed hospital outbreaks, of which 886 (76%) led to ward closures. Of these, 716 (62%) were confirmed to be due to norovirus through laboratory testing of faecal samples. The HPA said that so far, since July of this year there have been 1,505 reports of norovirus. Over the same time period last year there were only 1,129 reports, so this year has so far seen a 33% increase.