Update: Norovirus Suspected in Stanford University Outbreak

Update:

The Stanford University students who have fallen ill since Wednesday night likely have norovirus, similar to the stomach flu, according to a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County Public Health Department.

At about 8 p.m. Wednesday, the health department was informed that students had become sick, including four who were treated for dehydration at Stanford University Medical Center, county health spokeswoman Amy Cornell said.

The students, who live in same campus dormitory, Florence Moore Hall, reported feeling symptoms similar to the norovirus, a highly contagious illness that causes vomiting, stomach pains, headaches, fatigue and diarrhea, Cornell said.

"It's the beginning of the season" for that type of flu virus, Cornell said.

Stanford reported that the number of sick students in the dormitory, originally 48, had risen to 52 Thursday afternoon. As a precaution, Stanford will be sanitizing the Florence Moore dining hall over the next two days, according to Stanford spokeswoman Lisa Lapin.

The dining hall is normally closed on Friday and Saturday.

However, a preliminary investigation does not indicate that any employees at the dining hall were the source of the outbreak, nor that the disease spread through a common food source.

All common areas and bathrooms in the dormitory will also undergo a thorough cleaning, Lapin said.

The county health department sent a nurse and viral specialist to the dormitory to try and discover what may have caused the outbreak by analyzing a fecal sample from an ill student, Cornell said.

The virus can be contracted from contaminated food and water and exposure to infected people and spreads very quickly, Lapin said. The sickness usually goes away in one to three days, however it can still spread for more than 72 hours after the initial infection so students are advised to be vigilant about hygiene and limit person-to-person contact.

The sick students are resting and drinking fluids while the illness passes, Lapin said.


Original Story
Thursday, 11:45 a.m.

Forty-eight Stanford University students are recovering from a flu-like sickness, including four who were treated at a hospital for dehydration, a university spokeswoman said Thursday morning.
           
The sick students, all residents of the Florence Moore Hall dormitory on campus, suffered symptoms including vomiting, university spokeswoman Lisa Lapin said.
           
The students started feeling sick on Wednesday, complaining of symptoms similar to the stomach flu, Lapin said.
           
No one yet knows what caused the students to become ill, and theuniversity informed the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, which has launched an investigation, Lapin said.
           
"We reported it immediately," Lapin said. "The cause right now is unknown. There have been no hospitalizations."
           
Four students went to a hospital emergency room to be treated for dehydration but were then released, Lapin said.
           
The sick students are resting and drinking fluids while the illness passes, Lapin said.
           
The county health department will be testing fecal samples from the students to discover what pathogen might be responsible for the illness, Lapin said.

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