Goyang Special City Health Center has urged people to follow personal hygiene rules such as hand washing and eat safe food to prevent norovirus infections that increase rapidly in the winter. The number of patients has increased 3.6 times in the past five weeks, and 58.5% of all patients are infants and toddlers, requiring thorough hygiene management at childcare facilities such as daycare centers.
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[Korean Today] Goyang City, “Prevention of norovirus infection starts with proper hand washing” © Reporter Seung-ju Ji |
Goyang Special City (Mayor Lee Dong-hwan) recently requested that infants and toddlers and related facilities such as daycare centers and kids cafes strictly follow hygiene rules as the number of norovirus infection patients has increased rapidly.
According to Goyang City Health Center, the number of patients with norovirus infection has increased 3.6 times in the past five weeks, and 58.8% of all patients were infants and toddlers aged 0 to 6. Norovirus is highly contagious and can survive for three days in everyday environments, and since immunity does not last, there is a high possibility of reinfection.
Norovirus characteristics and infection routes
Norovirus mainly occurs from winter to early spring of the following year (November to March), and tends to spread mainly among infants and young children who have poor personal hygiene and live in groups. The main infection routes are ingestion of water (groundwater) or food (especially seafood) contaminated with norovirus, contact with patients, or infection through droplets from patient secretions.
If infected, symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea appear within 12 to 48 hours, and some patients may also experience abdominal pain, fever, and chills.
Effective prevention methods
The most important thing to prevent norovirus infection is proper hand washing. The health center recommends washing hands with soap and water for more than 30 seconds rather than using hand sanitizer. In addition, food ingredients should be thoroughly washed in running water and cooked at 85℃ or higher for more than 1 minute before consumption.
Patients should refrain from going to school, work, or school for at least 48 hours after symptoms disappear, and should use separate living spaces, such as bathrooms, from other family members. When using the bathroom, it is important to close the toilet lid and flush to prevent the spread of the virus through droplets.
Special care requested for infant/toddler care facilities
In particular, since norovirus mainly occurs in infants and young children, hygiene management is essential in childcare facilities. The public health center emphasized that symptomatic patients should be restricted from attending school and spaces and items used by patients should be thoroughly disinfected to prevent the spread of infection.
An official from Goyang City Health Center said, “Norovirus is highly contagious, but infection can be greatly reduced by simply following basic preventive measures such as proper hand washing and eating safe food,” and added, “Childcare facilities should pay special attention to prevention and management.”
Goyang City plans to continue to strengthen education and publicity for infectious disease prevention and support citizens to spend a healthy winter in a safe environment.
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