The People Bulletin

Just when employers thought that sickness levels might level off now that the swine flu pandemic is old news[1], the winter vomiting Norovirus has returned with a vengeance.

This nasty bug causes vomiting and diarrhoea and, in the first two weeks of November, 12 outbreaks of winter vomiting in hospitals in England and Wales were reported to the Health Protection Agency (HPA) which led to the closure of nine hospital wards.  Every year between 600,000 and one million people end up going down with the problem, causing widespread workplace absence problems.

So far, there have been 645 reports of illness this season, compared with 855 in the previous one; representing a fall of 25%, but this is expected to rise.

The usual indicators include projectile vomiting and diarrhoea, but other symptoms include stomach cramps, headache, fever and muscle aches. There is no cure, but most people usually start to recover around 48 hours from when the symptoms first started.

The viruses responsible for the illness are highly infectious and can survive for days in the open environment. People can become infected either by coming into direct contact with an infected person or object already contaminated with the virus.

Outbreaks of winter vomiting disease often occur in environments where people are in close contact with one another: schools, nursing homes and hospitals as well as working environments where employees sit or work alongside each other.

As there is no cure, people are advised to make sure they drink plenty of fluids to avoid becoming dehydrated. It is inevitable that symptoms may strike will individuals are at their place of work, by which time the infection could already have been passed on.

Sensible precautions for employers would be to:

• Ensure all common kitchen area worktops and toilet facility areas are kept spotlessly clean and disinfected.  Germs can last up to three days on unwashed surfaces.[2]
• Ensure affected employees are sent home as soon as possible and do not return to work until the symptoms have passed.
  Further information on hygiene is available from the Health Protection Agency and for information on Statutory Sick Pay can be found in Adrian Hobbs’ article ‘Sick pay - how it works’ in this issue. 

 www.hpa.org.uk/Topics/InfectiousDiseases/InfectionsAZ/Norovirus/

[1] See ‘Post pandemic company flu jabs not to be sniffed at’ in The People Bulletin, 20 October 2010 

[2] See also ‘Comfort breaks – the bottom line’ in The People Bulletin, 10 November 2010.