Norovirus Sickens Campers At Notre Dame, Sparks Investigation

More than 100 middle school and high school students who were attending sports camps at the University of Notre Dame have fallen ill with a gastrointestinal virus.

The exact cause of the illnesses are still unknown, but officials from the University of Notre Dame indicate that Indiana State Department of Health lab tests confirm the source stemmed from a norovirus, a very contagious “stomach bug” that sickens millions of people every year..

The Notre Dame norovirus outbreak has sickened male and female students attending camps for football, hockey, basketball, lacrosse and tennis last week. At least twenty-nine campers have received hospital treatment as a result of the illnesses.

Despite the problems, officials at Notre Dame report that summer camps are continuing to operate, although some of the participants have been moved to other accommodations.

Noroviruses cause inflammation of the stomach and large intestine lining (gastroenteritis). Originally known as the Norwalk virus, after the town of Norwalk, Ohio, where the first confirmed outbreak was reported in 1972, noroviruses are the leading cause of gastroenteritis in the United States.

There are no antiviral drugs available to treat noroviruses, as the illnesses do not respond to antibiotics designed to kill bacteria. In healthy people, the illness should go away on its own within a couple of days, with most people recovering fully, without any long-term problems from the virus.

Symptoms of norovirus infection usually include diarrhea, throwing up, nausea, and stomach cramping.

Norovirus is often considered a form of food poisoning, because it can be transmitted through food that has been contaminated with the virus. However, it is not always the result of food contamination.

The condition is also sometimes mistaken for the stomach flu, although noroviruses are not the influenza virus.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that each year more than 20 million cases of acute gastroenteritis are caused by noroviruses. In other words, 1 in every 15 Americans will get norovirus illness each year. Norovirus is also estimated to cause over 70,000 hospitalizations and 800 deaths each year in the United States.