2007 Volume 22 Issue 4 Pages 247-252
Nationwide outbreaks of infectious gastroenteritis were caused by the norovirus in 2006 and 2007, so “the noro-phase” was devised based on the conditions of local epidemics, outbreak in patients in our hospital, and reinforcement of environmental hygiene and restrictions of the use of common facilities such toilets in the hospital. Furthermore, utilizing the “diarrhea surveillance” routinely performed on LAN for symptom surveillance in our hospital, we have developed a system to notify staff of a current “noro-phase” using the LAN so that every employee in the hospital can share common information about that particular phase. So far, the “noro-phase” procedure has worked quite well. In March 2007, when the norovirus epidemic terminated in this area, a total of only seven cases were observed in our hospital, including two mild cases with symptoms of diarrhea that disappeared within a day or two. We observed one patient in each of five wards, including one uncertain case of secondary infection without further evidence. Therefore, our system appears robust enough to deal with any GI epidemic such as norovirus.
