NOROVIRUS on Carnival Pride

[dmdiver]

So far, all I've found is this.

"Bathroom Paranoia

By Richard Trubo
WebMD Feature

Perhaps Ally McBeal can ease her off-the-charts stress levels by escaping to the office restroom. But for most of us, public toilets are actually a bit scary.


If you squirm at the thought of creepy germs lurking on toilet seats and faucet handles, you probably spend as little time as possible in the restrooms of your office building, not to mention those in restaurants, hotels and (God forbid!) gas stations. And during those nerve-wracking moments when you dare to venture into the confines of the bathroom, you may find yourself pushing open the stall door with your elbows, crouching precariously above the toilet seat rather than letting your skin touch it, and flushing with your shoe.


But while there's plenty of bathroom paranoia to go around, anxiety might be a little overdone. Yes, there can be plenty of bugs lying in wait in public restrooms, including both familiar and unfamiliar suspects like streptococcus, staphylococcus, E. coli and shigella bacteria, hepatitis A virus, the common cold virus, and various sexually transmitted organisms. But if your immune system is healthy, and if you adopt simple hygienic measures like handwashing, you should be able to deliver a knockout punch to most of what you encounter and perhaps put your "germ-phobia" to rest.

No doubt about it, there could be a witch's brew of germs wherever you turn in public restrooms. Many people consider toilet seats to be public enemy No. 1 -- the playground for organisms responsible for STDs like chlamydia or gonorrhea. But before you panic, the toilet seat is not a common vehicle for transmitting infections to humans. Many disease-causing organisms can survive for only a short time on the surface of the seat, and for an infection to occur, the germs would have to be transferred from the toilet seat to your urethral or genital tract, or through a cut or sore on the buttocks or thighs, which is possible but very unlikely.


"To my knowledge, no one has ever acquired an STD on the toilet seat -- unless they were having sex on the toilet seat!" says Abigail Salyers, PhD, president of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).


Common cold germs, like most viruses, die rapidly, and thus may be less of a threat than you think. "Even if you come into contact with particular viruses or bacteria, you'd have to contract them in amounts large enough to make you sick," says Judy Daly, PhD, professor of pathology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.


Germs in feces can be propelled into the air when the toilet is flushed. For that reason, Philip Tierno, MD, director of clinical microbiology and diagnostic immunology at New York University Medical Center and Mt. Sinai Medical Center, advises leaving the stall immediately after flushing to keep the microscopic, airborne mist from choosing you as a landing site. "The greatest aerosol dispersal occurs not during the initial moments of the flush, but rather once most of the water has already left the bowl," he says.


Other hot zones in public bathrooms include sinks, faucet handles, and towel dispensers. Picture someone emerging from a bathroom stall, and turning on the faucet with dirty hands, and you'll know why faucet handles are a potentially troublesome surface. Studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson found that sinks are the greatest reservoir of germ colonies in restrooms, thanks in part to accumulations of water that become breeding grounds for tiny organisms.

"Your own immune system is your first line of defense against contracting diseases in public restrooms," says Daly. But hand washing is a very important adjunct. Yet a survey that was part of ASM's Clean Hands Campaign revealed this dirty little secret: Though 95% of men and women claim that they wash after using a public toilet, observations made by researchers discovered that only 67% actually do.


"Many people are unconcerned about microorganisms because you can rush out of an airport bathroom without washing your hands, and lightning won't strike you," says Salyers. "So these people may think that handwashing is not all that important."


Even if you wash your hands, you may not do it properly, says Tierno, author of The Secret Life of Germs. "Some individuals move their hands quickly under a flow of water for only a second or so, and they don't use soap. That's not going to do much good."


Tierno advises rubbing soapy water all over the hands and fingers for 20 to 30 seconds, including under the fingernails. As you create friction by rubbing the hands together, you'll loosen the disease-causing particles on the hands. After rinsing thoroughly, repeat the process, he says.

Even if you're a frequent visitor to public restrooms, you can coexist peacefully and even healthfully with the germs around you. In addition to handwashing, try these strategies:


Rather than flushing the toilet with your bare hand, use your shoe. Everyone else is probably doing it.
After washing your hands, use a paper towel to shut off the faucet and to open the door on your way out, in order to keep from becoming contaminated, says Tierno.
Whenever possible, use a restroom stall with toilet paper that is almost completely covered in a metal or plastic holder, which will guard against splattering water and germs.
Use hot-air hand dryers with care. In order to feel the hot air, you might have to get very close to the vents. Don't let your hands touch the surface of the vents, however, or you'll risk contamination."

During my search, I did notice that a lot of the hits that came up were sites that sell various devices to supposedly keep you from contracting germs. It looks like lots of people are making lots of money off our germ paranoia.

[RoxyD0823]

the norovirus is really something that can be avoided. if there is an outbreak, not everyone will get sick. normally that happens when someone with the virus boards the ship, however.. carnival does do plenty to sanitize all around the ship. but of course everyone needs to take they're own precautions. they must wash their hands constantly, not walk around bare foot, etc.. it's self explanatory.

[tess2cruz]

[I]Wow, we should all be dead or deathly ill!!!! Amazing we are all still alive and breathing and able to post all this stuff, isn't it????:rolleyes: [/I]

[tess2cruz]

This thread started because it was rumored there was an outbreak on the Pride, which proved to be untrue. Now you all have us afraid to flush the toilet!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

[CRUZ-AHOLIC]

[quote name='tess2cruz'][I]Wow, we should all be dead or deathly ill!!!! Amazing we are all still alive and breathing and able to post all this stuff, isn't it????:rolleyes: [/I][/QUOTE]


Perhaps you're reading too much 'tone' in this? It's not a 'Grim Reaper hanging over our heads' thread, but it [I]is[/I] a valid concern when in any closed environment...like a school, hospital, office building, or cruise ship.

You may find something laughable about it, but maybe a better way to look at it is when you want to stop yourself...or a family member...from getting a case of the 'stomach flu', 'food poisoning (although you don't know what you could have eaten that was bad), or for some reason can't seem to shake a 'cold' or 'bug'. In many of those cases the cause is because YOU picked up something from someone else and it made it into your system via your hands not being washed properly, or enough.

[tess2cruz]

I am in the food industry and understand perfectly the dangers of not washing your hands. I probably wash my hands, AND do it properly, more than you do, probably. I even use my towel to open bathroom doors, (who touched that before you???) I sneeze into my upper arm, not my hands. All this is as normal as breathing to me. It is just this thread has gone from "just wash your hands" to fear of flushing the toilet!!!!! Come on, our bodies do have the ability to protect us from MOST of the crap out there. There, after all was no Norovirius after all on the Pride.

[tess2cruz]

I do have one question, how do you tell the differance between a Norovirus and a simple case of rampant sea sickness. I have witnessed the other on a day of rough seas, and it was not pretty either, and infected a good portion of the ship. Without testing, how do you know??

[boundingmaynard]

Here is a link to the CDC, notice that Norovirus cannot grow outside of the body. [URL]http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/gastro/norovirus-qa.htm[/URL]

[dmdiver]

People, just wash your hands. I've lived 48 years & that has worked for me. Good grief, I just recalled that when I had a horse, I used to ride at an arena that had an outhouse for a bathroom. The only way to wash your hands was at the hose outside the concession shack with no soap. I can guarantee you that the majority of people didn't even bother to do that. They had not invented hand sanitizer yet. Why oh why am I not dead? I tend to think that if you have a normal uncompromised immune system, you'll do just fine by washing your hands.

What really gets to me are the people that leave the restroom without washing, stating on the way out, "Oh, I have hand sanitizer in my purse." Okay, well now their fecal germs are spread all over the door handle, their purse & the exterior of the hand sanitizer bottle. No, I want to feel like I am washing the germs off. The thought of a bunch of dead germs, dirt, whatever still laying on my hands is pretty disgusting.

Now I am laughing at my own self. I wore contact lenses for years & was one of those people who put them in my mouth to re-wet them & put them back in my eye. Oh my gosh! Why haven't my eyeballs fallen out?

[nrdsb4]

[quote name='boundingmaynard']Here is a link to the CDC, notice that Norovirus cannot live outside of the body. [URL]http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/gastro/norovirus-qa.htm[/URL][/quote]

Actually, it states that norovirus cannot [B][I]grow[/I][/B] outside the body.

The fact is that once outside the body, it can infect others if it has contaminated a surface which others proceed to touch. Hence the importance of handwashing and avoidance of putting hands to mouth.

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1][B]How do people become infected with noroviruses?[/B][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Noroviruses are found in the stool or vomit of infected people. People can become infected with the virus in several ways, including:[/SIZE][/FONT]
[LIST]
[*][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]eating food or drinking liquids that are contaminated with norovirus; [/SIZE][/FONT]
[*][COLOR=red][I][B][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]touching surfaces or objects contaminated with norovirus, and then placing their hand in their mouth;[/SIZE][/FONT] [/B][/I][/COLOR]
[*][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]having direct contact with another person who is infected and showing symptoms (for example, when caring for someone with illness, or sharing foods or eating utensils with someone who is ill). [/SIZE][/FONT][/LIST][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Persons working in day-care centers or nursing homes should pay special attention to children or residents who have norovirus illness. This virus is very contagious and can spread rapidly throughout such environments.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[nothomeonacruise]

I sat next to a lady at a church function who explained she'd been sick with a stomach virus the previous day. I remember expressing concern that she was alright. I was sick as a dog the next day and ended up in the emergency room dehydrated. The symptoms were like the norovirus. I wasn't tested, so I'll never know. I do remember shaking her hand, so maybe that's when I caught it.
Good lessons here to remember about washing hands!!

[CRUZ-AHOLIC]

[quote name='tess2cruz']I am in the food industry and understand perfectly the dangers of not washing your hands. I probably wash my hands, AND do it properly, more than you do, probably. I even use my towel to open bathroom doors, (who touched that before you???) I sneeze into my upper arm, not my hands. All this is as normal as breathing to me. It is just this thread has gone from "just wash your hands" to fear of flushing the toilet!!!!! Come on, our bodies do have the ability to protect us from MOST of the crap out there. There, after all was no Norovirius after all on the Pride.[/QUOTE]


Glad to hear of your handwashing habits. It would be great if everyone was as responsible. Believe it or not, I do the sneeze in the arm thing too. :) I had heard about that awhile back, and now not only do it but make sure the fam does as well. We're not 'phobic' about the situation, but all of us still shout out an occasional reminder to "be sure you wash your hands"! Happy to say, our health has been very good overall.

Re our bodies, yes it's true a healthy person with a good immune system can fight off a lot of *junk*, some folks have immune-related problems which make it tough. And, even the healthiest person, if they engage in behaviors that tax the immune system...not getting enough sleep, overexerting themselves, and I'm sure overdrinking doesn't help either...will lower those natural barriers, so that the next bug that they inhale or take in when their hand touches their mouth gets 'em ill.

[dlon]

Hi,
I just returned from The Pride a few days ago. I would question if it was really noro virus. The ship visits Mexico. Despite warnings many people eat and drink things thatcan cause montezuma's revenge. I did notice that Carnival does not have hand sanitizers all over like princess ships use to have... just a thought.