Health Experts Warn Of Rising Norovirus Cases In Oklahoma

Norovirus numbers are rising across the country and doctors want you to stay healthy.

Recent outbreaks of Norovirus in places like Texas have prompted Oklahoma health leaders to speak out about it.

"This is a common virus, it's the cruise ship virus that causes gastrointestinal symptoms, nausea, vomiting, fever, and aching. Some people just get mildly ill with some diarrhea and other people go on to get severe illness with dehydration and even need IV fluids," says WellOk CEO Dr. Stan Schwartz.

He says recent outbreaks could be due to more relaxed health protocols.

"We're probably seeing a reappearance of this because we're having more congregate activities now as we go from the epidemic stage to the endemic stage of covid and people are getting together more for indoor and sharing activities," says Schwartz.

Dr. Matthew Else with Utica Park Clinic in Tulsa says the virus is usually associated with food.

"Most commonly with this virus, it's going to be related to food, but even just contaminated surfaces, not washing our hands, we can have an outbreak start to tick up, and you start to see more people start to complain of symptoms," he says.

Dr. Else says the virus is pretty common, and there are measures you can take to keep yourself healthy.

"The easiest way with all of these is going to be to wash your hands, and use hand sanitizer as much as you can," says Else.

However Dr. Else says not all hand sanitizers protect against norovirus, so using warm soap and water is best. He says while Norovirus can seem scary, you shouldn't be too concerned.

"It's not something that you have to be too alarmed about, but you do want to pay attention especially if they say it's in certain foods or certain places, you should take precautions accordingly," says Else.

The State Health Department says Norovirus isn't a reported disease, but they do investigate outbreaks.