Norovirus- The Winter Vomiting Bug that you can get any time of year - November 2025

[Bell] Welcome back to Coffee Break, the audio equivalent of a calm tummy when everyone else is doing 10 to the dozen. It's nori-virus season, the winter vomiting bug is back and making the rounds. It comes on fast, it spreads easily, but the good news is it usually clears up in a few days. There is a right way to deal with it and some common mistakes to avoid. We'll cover what to do, when to worry and how to protect your family and also tell you what not to do on this episode of Coffee Break. I'm Dr. Jeff Hampe and I'm Dr. Sam McGinley. And this is season 1 of Coffee Break. We are two general practitioners from beautiful dorms to the United Kingdom and we are happy to have you here with us for another Coffee Break. In our show we give you helpful and useful health and wellness information in short and easily digestible episodes. That's right and hopefully in a fun and enjoyable way as well. In today's Vat Sea of Health information we hope to be your trusty island of reliable and impartial independent, unbiased information. And we may even have some guests with us to help. So sit back and enjoy, a Coffee Break! So what is Noro virus? Well it's also called the Winter Vomiting Bug and it's a stomach bug that causes vomiting and diarrhea. And it's actually one of the most commonest stomach bugs in the UK. And we refer to it as the Winter Vomiting Bug, but hence you can get it at any time of year, can't you? And if you listen back to our Winter Health episode we explain why these sort of bugs and illnesses are more common at this time of year, even though you can get them all year round. And it's normally quite unpleasant isn't it? It's not some nice thing to have, it's really quite awful, isn't it? Say that, usually at the best of the few days. And normally you can look after yourself or the child at home. Yes. Let's talk about the symptoms of Noro virus. Unfortunately one of the things that's quite common with this is symptoms do start quite sudden. They don't make out. The sun can be quite ferocious, feeling sick and then being sick, vomiting, diarrhea, fevers, headache, pain and crampy, grippy pain and tummy, and then all over body eggs and pain. So some of it seems flu-like, but the vomiting and diarrhea is certainly the most common component to it. And you're right actually because it does, in most cases, come on really suddenly, you can feel completely fine, suddenly feel really poorly with the associated consequences. It's that quick isn't it? It's not a little bit rough and you know, day later it's straight away. So how can you treat Noro virus yourself? So if your child develops Noro virus, you usually will treat it at home and actually it's important to say you should stay at home to isolate yourself. So the others don't catch it. And the good news is you will start to feel better in around two to three days. Diary and vomiting, as we said before, are the most common symptoms and can usually be treated at home. This is with fluids so that you're avoiding essentially dehydration. Yeah, that's right. And there's a dos and don't aren't there. So on the dos list, as you've just said, stay at home, get plenty of rest. It's going to wipe you. You're going to feel pretty drowsy really. And you don't really want to be going out and passing around people as well. Come on to it's really quite infectious. Yeah. Drink plenty of fluids. We need to keep rehydrated. There are all rehydration therapies. But to be honest, water, squash, you just need to keep hydrated. If you're feeling sick, small sips are all in trying to go up at all down. If you're breast or bottle feeling or baby, keep going. And if they're being sick, again, small fees are often unusual. And babies on formula or solid food, they can have small sips of water between feeds. But it is important that they still have their feed and isn't not just water you're giving them as a certain. Yeah. And we call it bowel rest, but eat when you feel you're able to, but avoid those foods that are going to upset things. So fatty foods, dairy, dairy for sure, bicep foods, there was always this myth about dairy settling or tummy dairy. She makes it tummy worse especially if your poorly so definitely avoid fatty acidic spicy foods, dairy. Yes. And if you're in discomfort, you can take paraceties, mom, simple paraceties, well, will help with some of those, some of that discomfort. But again, check the leaflet before giving it to child. And in the hydration, dilute tap reduce, quite good effective one as well as. So things to avoid fruit juice that's concentrated. So dilute tap juice, as I said, is okay, but pure fresh fruit juice, not a good idea. And fizzy drinks also, they'll just make the diarrhea worse when they don't also make baby formula diluted or weaker. Just use the normal strength and avoid giving children under 12 any medicine that stops diarrhea. Also, if you're an adult and you're thinking about something to stop diarrhea, this should also be considered carefully, because essentially as you may well be aware of, diarrhea is there to flush out the bug. If you slow that down, you're just going to feel more and well for longer. You're keeping that thing causing you to be ill in your body for longer, aren't you? Yes. And very simple piece of advice, but do not give aspirin to children under 16. Definitely. Even if you're worried about their fever. And it's important your pharmacists can help you with loravirus sometimes. And so speak to pharmacists if you're your child over the age of five, loravirus and you are dehydrated. So you've got dark or smelly urine or you're not paying as much as normal. If you're an older person or have a weakened immune system or other health conditions that increase that risk of dehydration. Or if you need to temporarily stop diarrhea as an adult, as we said, can't really be relied on, but if you need it temporarily, then your pharmacist is a good person to speak to. Yes, absolutely. And we would also encourage those who do take regular medication to think about their sick day rules. Certainly, if you've got dark or vomiting, there may be some medicines that you've been advised to stop in that period of time. And we'll be doing an episode on the sick day rules later on, so keeping it around for that. And loravirus is a virus, so just to remind of the antibiotics will not help in this situation. And all about allowing your body to flush out. Actually, it can make them worse. Oh, it makes it worse for the antibiotics. So you should look at how it's spread. So, as I said just now, loravirus is actually a virus. It is spread through vomit and feces. It can spread to others very, very easily. In fact, we see it very commonly spread around hospital wards rapidly. Yes. So how do you catch it? Well, it could be close contact with someone who's got it. It could be touching the surface or an object that's been contaminated. And then, unfortunately, then touching your mouth. Eating food has been prepared or handled by someone who's got the rovirus, or perhaps drinking, unclean water or infected food. And there are some things you can do if you have loravirus to help prevent infecting others. So wash your hands with soap and water after going to the toilet or changing naffies. And it's really important at this point. Really have to say this, the alcohol handels are not effective with loravirus. So don't rely on an alcohol handel because actually it will not do anything to loravirus. A lot of people fall foul of this. Equally, wash your hands with soap and water before preparing, serving or eating food. Especially if you have to prepare food for others. Yeah. Ideally, if you don't have to prepare food for others, it's always better to. If you've got more of a virus, wash your clothes and bedding that's had any feces or vomit on it. And washing it up to about 60 degrees, washing it, and set it free from other laundry. It's really important to kill the virus off clean toilet seats, clean the handles, clean taps and clean bathroom door handles really well. And really, you're trying to avoid contact. You're isolating on you, avoiding contact with those as much as possible. And that is the thing, unfortunately, it's so contagious just a few viral possible. It can really cause just a similar severe illness in another person. It doesn't take much. Again, yeah, really important, as we said before, isolate yourself. That might be a for a child, so no school or nursery. An adult, we're going to work and you do need to be clear. 48 hours clear of symptoms before you return. And also, of course, avoiding visiting vulnerable people for the same reason. Yeah. So we have some urgent advice, which is seek medical advice, which in the UK is called one more one. If you're worried about a baby under 12 months and nor a virus, if you've got child, some breast or a bottle of feeding while they're ill. If you've got a child under five years, who you may have signs of dehydration, such as fewer wet nappies. If you or a child over five years shows signs of dehydration after using oral rehydration sachets. If you or your child keeping sick or can't keep those down. if you've got bloody diarrhea or bleeding from the passage or diarrhea for more than seven days or vomiting for more than two to three days, definitely speak to one more. Yes. And then there are some immediate action points as well and that might involve calling 999 or going to A&E. So these include vomiting that has changed to include blood or maybe it goes brown. It looks a bit like coffee grounds. Or green, so green vomiting and adult or yellow, bright green in a child. They can be signs of other serious illnesses. If you are concerned you may have swallowed something poisonous. If you have developed a stiff neck or you have an intolerance of looking at bright lights. If you have developed a sudden severe headache that is not responding to simple pain really. Or sudden severe tummy ache as well. Think about skin colour, so blue, grey, pale, blotchy skin or your lips or tongue changing colour. These are also indications to seek urgent mental attention. If you are having severe difficulty breathing or you find your breathing habit has changed taking lots of quick short breaths and finally confusion so that could be difficult to say for yourself but if you noticed that your unwell child or relative is confused or not responding normally, consider urgent attention. It is important to say that these are rare recurrences. Most people will recover without any further medical input. As you said, the symptoms are really unpleasant. Yes, definitely. It is usually short and they have, however, most people will get better without any form of extra medical treatment. Absolutely. So Sam, what is your take on point from today's episode? I would say so take homes are that this illness presents ferociously but is actually very short lived and most people, the vast majority will recover quickly. Stick to the key messages of hydrating. Don't worry about food during this period but make sure your hydration is appropriate. So as we mentioned dilute, aqueduce or dehydration salts, that sort of thing. I agree. I would also say my take on point is that alcohol hand gel does absolutely nothing. Yes, good old. So don't rely on your little bottle of alcohol hand gel to stop you getting diorobomiting. It will help you with lots of other things but definitely won't help you with this. One more thing I'd say is that if you are, for instance, somebody who has type 1 diabetes and you get something like norivirus, then follow the 6-day advice that you've been given in terms of how to manage your diabetes. My last thought was dairy. It's very tempting when you feel better again to start maybe taking dairy or maybe milk in your tea, for example. But actually you really should give your tummy two weeks rest. So just be very careful with dairy for at least two weeks after an hour's hours because you might find you get a resurgence of diarrhea because your tummy just isn't able to absorb it. This has been an episode of Coffee Break and we hope you've enjoyed it and if you have then I hope you'll join us for another Coffee Break soon. Remember if you want to get in touch with us or if you have any ideas or suggestions then please feel free to email us at the show. Hello, at CoffeeBreak.com. 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