Norovirus: Contagious Disorder and Care for Older Patients

Running head: NOROVIRUS
NOROVIRUS
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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NOROVIRUS
Norovirus is a contagious disorder that causes vomiting and diarrhea. Children and
older patients have hard time as it affects them in much larger extent than the younger adults.
This assignment would be mainly describing the viral infection in details and will show how
older patients need to be cared when affected by the disorder (Petrignani et al., 2015). The
care should not only evidence based but should also ensure following a person centered
approach by professionals. It will also show the precautionary measures that need to be taken
when such outbreaks occur in aged care facilities.
Norovirus are a group of related, non-enveloped, single-stranded RNA. This virus is
highly contagious and spread through food and water that had been contaminated during
preparation and through contaminated surfaces. Diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain
typically begin 12 to 48 hours after exposure to the infection (Kambhampati et al., 2015). The
symptoms mainly last for one to three days and most of the people recover completely
without treatments. However, for specific cohorts of people like infants, people with
underlying disorders and older adults, this infection takes a toll on their health. In their cases,
diarrhea and vomiting results in severe dehydration and therefore require medical attention.
Some of the other symptoms are abdominal cramps, malaise, and muscle pain as well as low
grade fever. The patient named Mr. Abeo Okafor had similar complains of abdominal pain
and diarrhea. Another patient complained of suffering from abdominal pain and vomiting.
Norovirus mainly spread in public spaces like that of hospitals, schools, and even
nursing homes and aged care facilities. Small particles from vomit or the feces from the
infected person have the ability to infect a healthy individual. This infection may spread
through close contact with someone who are infected with Norovirus The virus can survive
outside the body for several days and therefore when a healthy individual touches
contaminated surfaces and objects, he or she might get affected with the infection (Lindsay et

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NOROVIRUS
al., 2015). Moreover, eating contaminated food by the healthy individuals might lead to
infection as well.
Older adults seem to suffer more in comparison to that of the younger cohorts of
people when they get infected by Norovirus. The former suffer from a longer duration of
diarrhea ranging from 3 days to 9 days Therefore, Mr. Okafor might have to suffer because of
this infection in similar ways. Moreover, it results in even slower recovery from this infection
in the older cohort of people. Many of the studies have shown that older people have
increased susceptibility to the virus mainly due to age-related changes in B-cell as well as in
T-cell function (Metzelthin et al., 2017). They also have d immune-senescence or underlying
chronic conditions and co morbidities that make the older people vulnerable to more
suffering. Therefore, healthcare professionals need to plan a proper evidence based care to
ensure person centered care service to Okafor and help him get well soon.
Studies have found out important factors that explain why norovirus causes
challenging situations in nursing homes, aged care facilities and similar healthcare centers.
The infectious dose of norovirus is very low and this virus has multiple routes of
transmission. Hence, they can affect patients in various ways. Variety of norovirus is present
and hence infection with one strain does not confer immunity from other strains (Chen, Hall,
& Kirk, 2017). They can survive on any surface for days that even includes exposed and even
wrapped food items. Person to person outbreaks can take place in different types of semi-
closed setting. However, they are very difficult to control. This might be because the
infectious dose of Norovirus is small, or because that the infected patients excrete huge
amount of viable virus particles and even because of the widespread environmental
contamination that take place. Therefore, controlling the disorder in nursing homes and aged
care facilities is very difficult.