Outbreaks of norovirus have become increasingly prevalent in Wisconsin among children and adults, with one in every five norovirus tests coming back positive, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
Starting in December, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire experienced large numbers of norovirus breakouts across campus. In a Facebook post by UW-Eau Claire Recreation, the school recommended increased handwashing amongst students and the use of disinfectant in high-touch areas.
Stoughton High School alumna Eliza Albert is a Freshman at UW-Eau Claire and lives in an on-campus dorm.
“People were pretty much freaking out because no one likes puke. Students were avoiding eating at our dining hall and eating out a lot…just trying to stay away from people and then washing their hands a lot,” Albert said.
Norovirus is a highly contagious virus that emerged in the United States in 1968 and infected two-thirds of an Ohio elementary school. The virus is a part of the Caliciviridae family and is not a strain of influenza. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “the virus causes acute gastroenteritis, an inflammation of the stomach or intestines.”
Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, and they last an average of 1-3 days.
“Students were throwing up, and they were having diarrhea problems. They threw up for 48 hours, and then they were fine,” Albert said.
Albert recalled students flooding dorm bathrooms with symptoms like a severe stomach bug.
“They closed off one stall to be a puking stall, and you couldn’t use the bathroom there,” she said.
The highly infectious disease is easily transferable and can live on surfaces for days or weeks. In an attempt to minimize the spread of norovirus, UW-Eau Claire made changes to dining hall services for students.
“We used to be able to get our food buffet style [but with norovirus outbreaks], they would serve all of our food to us. We had to wear gloves to get cereal,” Albert said.
Many students’ fears of contracting norovirus in common areas, including the dining hall, led to many taking safety into their own hands.
“People avoided eating at our dining hall; they ate out a lot and tried to stay away from people. [Students were also] washing their hands a lot,” Albert explained.
The step taken to make food service more contactless by eliminating buffet-style dining at UW-Eau Claire was one of many procedures implemented at the height of the spread. The university also changed many in-class final exams to digital to minimize student contact.
“[No testing] was pushed back from what I heard, but some in-class finals moved online. No testing was canceled, though,” Albert said.
Although new approaches used by the university to control outbreaks were successful in late December, Albert feels they weren’t enough at the height of the spread earlier that month.
“I think they should have started doing food service earlier because they started that really late. By that point, everyone had already had Norovirus,” she said.
Students returned to campus on January 27, and steps to prevent norovirus will continue into the new semester.