Lafayette College’s communications division sent out a community-wide email notifying students and faculty of a recent surge in viral intestinal illness on March 7.
The email referred to the general rise in norovirus cases in the Lehigh Valley. Director of Health Services Jodi Schluter wrote in an email that the exact virus affecting campus has not been determined.
“I cannot say for 100 percent certainty that it is norovirus, as we were not able to send stool samples for cultures,” she wrote. “However, due to previous gastrointestinal illness at Lafayette College, it is presenting as norovirus or another similar virus such as adenovirus, rotavirus, etc.”
There have been 78 cases of the enigmatic illness between March 3 and March 12 reported to the health center, according to Schluter. She theorized that this number could be higher than what is reported due to people choosing not to get seen or those finding care somewhere else.
Hina Zaidi, a doctor who practices in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital, explained in an email that norovirus symptoms present 12-48 hours after exposure, but it lasts for only 24-72 hours. Information from the Centers for Disease Control states that norovirus can spread to other people two weeks after exposure.
“It is typical for this time of year,” Schluter wrote of the outbreak. “Gastroenteritis virus spreads mostly between November to April as more people are together indoors with direct contact to contaminated surfaces.”
Zaidi called the illness the “winter vomiting bug,” clarifying that the greater Lehigh Valley area is also affected by the surge in viral intestinal illnesses.
“There is high community transmission,” Zaidi wrote. According to WFMZ, some estimates say that the number of norovirus cases might be 10 times higher than anything they have seen over the last decade.
The communications division email encouraged faculty to suspend the practice of asking for dean’s excuses for regular absences and advised students to maintain “good public health behaviors we all know well.” Schluter wrote that Bailey is encouraging students exhibiting symptoms “not to return to classes and activities until their symptoms improve for 48 hours.”
For the prevention of norovirus, the CDC encourages frequent hand washing, doing laundry in hot water and disinfection of contaminated surfaces.
Notably, “hand sanitizer alone is not sufficient” to kill or prevent norovirus, according to Zaidi.