Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    FOURTY-TWO children and two teachers in a kindergarten in Luohu District were hospitalized Thursday in a suspected Norwalk virus (Norovirus) outbreak, the city’s center for disease control and prevention (CDC) said Friday.

    The patients, from Luohu District’s Luofang Kindergarten, developed symptoms including abdominal pain, vomiting and watery diarrhea, but all the symptoms were mild, the CDC said. All the patients have been discharged from the hospital and put under home quarantine.

    To prevent a possible larger outbreak, the kindergarten suspended all classes until today, and had its classrooms, toys and other facilities disinfected.

    Norovirus, also called the winter vomiting bug, affects people of all ages. The disease is usually self-limiting, and severe illness is rare. It is not usually dangerous, and most people who contract it make a full recovery within two to three days, doctors with the CDC said.

    Doctors warned that seafood, especially shellfish, and salad ingredients are the foods most often implicated in Norovirus outbreaks. Ingestion of raw or insufficiently steamed clams and oysters poses a high risk for Norovirus infection. Foods other than shellfish can be contaminated by ill food handlers. Norovirus on surfaces can be rapidly deactivated by using sufficient heat or chlorine-based disinfectants.