Dispensary Corner 09 Oct 13
October 9, 2013
The dreaded norovirus, which
affects thousands of people with
food poisoning every year, could
soon be part of history.
In the US, an experimental
vaccine trial has shown promising
results, with researchers from the
University of Cincinatti reporting
it reduced symptoms by 52%.
The tests provide optimism that
a vaccine could be developed
for the highly contagious illness,
known as the “cruise ship virus”
for its tendency to proliferate
in environments such as cruise
vessels where thousands of
people live and eat in close
proximity to each other.
Norovirus occurs in many other
confined areas, such as schools,
childcare centres and hospitals,
and can spread through infected
food or water, contaminated
surfaces and even through the air.
The study doesn’t sound like
much fun – 98 volunteers drank
water laced with the virus and
were then injected with either the
vaccine or a placebo.
26 subjects given the vaccine
and 29 people given the placebo
were infected.
Ten people in the vaccinated
group had mild, moderate or
severe vomiting and/or diarrhoea
compared with 20 in the nonvaccinated
group.
Currently there is no treatment
or cure for the virus which is
the most common cause of viral
gastroenteritis.
Hea lth authorities in Dubai have
launched a new “supersized”
ambulance to get extremely
overweight patients to hospital in
emergency cases.
The vehicle was unveiled last
week by the Dubai Corporation
for Ambulance Services, and
has capacity for morbidly obese
patients weighing up to 300kg.
It’s equipped with an extra wide
reinforced stretcher, larger doors
and big wheelchairs, and has
significantly more internal space
to allow paramedics to work on
their hugely oversized patients.
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