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Post by kirbear on Jan 2, 2017 9:47:49 GMT -5
So, I have been doing an awful lot of googling regarding this norovirus business as it's seems to be what we are afraid of the most.
I decided to see if it's as prevelant as we think (in my mind it's on every surface, door handles, food out... EVERYTHING!
Well, according to most websites it seems to affect between 1-2 million people in the U.K. per year, apparently about 1% of the population. (I believe the UK population is 60 something million) When you read it like this it doesn't seem so scary does it? It just feels like everyone you know has it when I guess that isn't really the case.
I guess when I think back to the what was apparently the worst ever year for Noro, it was before I knew about it and before I became obsessed with germs (always been emet but never tried to avoid anything) and I didn't get it nor did anyone I know.
My sister says she has had it before when her daughter was a baby (she's now 8), only those two got ill and again, I didn't go out of my way to avoid her and I saw her every day as did the rest of my family.
I hope this helps a few people x
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Post by Jess44246 on Jan 2, 2017 13:32:41 GMT -5
As I just heard from razzle, perhaps our immune systems fight it off easily when we are barely exposed (ex. go to an ill person's house). A virus attacks a human cell and convinces it to make more viruses. Then those viruses attack other cells. But if the human cell is never attacked from the first virus, than you don't get ill, so many be when we are exposed we actually do carry a small amount with us that we easily fight off without knowing.
This noro season is pretty bad in the US. We hear about it more often than in other years, from near and far. It is very reassuring to know that only about 1% of people actually get it in the season. People honestly enjoy telling v* stories these days. Maybe they want to make light out of feeling poorly, want sympathy, or both. I don't understand it, and I'm sure that nobody else here does. We always hear the stories because we are always alert for that, and maybe they make us think that we get more exposure than we actually do.
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Post by kirbear on Jan 2, 2017 14:23:38 GMT -5
Exactly. I also suffer with Health anxiety and my main fear is cancer. When I am having a flare up of HA, like I'll find a mole that looks dodgy to me, nothing will convince me that it isn't cancerous even having a gp look at it. Then all of the stories seems to be cancer related or everyone I know seems to have a relative be diagnosed with it. You definitely seem to hear about things more when you fear them. I also have a fear of sinkholes (the kind that happen when the ground opens up), I seem to hear of them all the time yet some people I speak to don't even know what they are!
I think this year is the worst on record so far but only by a small percentage, even if you add another million on to the previous years total it still seems you're more likely to avoid it than get it xx
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Post by messofadreamer on Jan 2, 2017 17:29:47 GMT -5
According to the CDC about 6-7% of the US population gets noro each year, and I'm guessing if you combine that with other types of sv*s you're approaching 10%, which is not as high as our phobic minds think, but still not exactly rare. They also mention the estimate is that people will get noro about 5 times in their life, of course not including fp and other sv*s. I think our emet minds kind of think that if we only practice 'standard' hygiene then we can expect to get noro the 'average' number of times, so we go overboard trying to avoid it in any way possible. Maybe if it was slightly less contagious the 'average' number of times someone got it in their lifetime was only once or twice, we wouldn't be so exceptionally freaked out about it. Even though, of course, the amount of time any one person gets noro really has nothing to do with that - just a combination of genetics, hygiene and luck.
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Post by kirbear on Jan 2, 2017 17:51:50 GMT -5
Yeah I also read that the average person gets Noro 5 times in a lifetime. I'm not sure if I've ever had it or not and I'm 33, I've never had anything that I've passed to someone else anyway so I'm guessing not which frightens me as it means I must be due anytime! No like you say it isn't rare but i guess 10% of the population is better than what we probably feel it is. x
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