Tag Archives: norovirus

Global Handwashing Day: What You Need to Know

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Celebrated each year on October 15, Global Handwashing Day is an opportunity to create awareness about how proper handwashing affects your health. Proper handwashing can prevent infectious diseases like norovirus and the flu.

Here are 3 fast facts about handwashing:

  • Key times to always wash your hands with soap and clean water are: after using the bathroom, preparing food, before eating, and after coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose.
  • Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol when soap and water are not available.
  • Hand sanitizers do NOT get rid of all types of germs.

 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), follow these steps to wash your hands the correct way:

  1. Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, apply soap.
  2. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers and under your nails.
  3. Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from the beginning to end twice.
  4. Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
  5. Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.

For more information about proper handwashing techniques, visit https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/when-how-handwashing.html

 

From Other Blogs: Avoiding foodborne illnesses, norovirus, protecting the Earth’s ‘Thin Skin’ & more

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A collection of health and environmental posts from other governmental blogs.

Don’t Get Roasted by Foodborne Illnesses this Winter

The holidays are all about sharing, having fun and, of course…food!!! I bet you will agree that a good holiday get-together always includes delicious traditional dishes or special recipes.

If you are hosting a holiday party this winter, you have probably already started thinking about treating your guests to a delectable menu. There are endless recipes and traditional holiday dishes that will reappear or make a debut at your dinner table; however, foodborne illnesses should not be part of the feast. While food is something to look forward to this season, foodborne illnesses is not. — From the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) blog

Norovirus Illness is Messy – Clean Up Right Away

When norovirus strikes in your own home, you can be prepared by having the supplies you need to immediately clean up after a loved one vomits or has diarrhea.

Norovirus is a tiny germ that spreads quickly and easily. It causes vomiting and diarrhea that come on suddenly. A very small amount of norovirus can make you sick. The number of virus particles that fit on the head of a pin is enough to infect over 1,000 people. — From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Public Health Matters blog

Protecting the Earth’s ‘Thin Skin’

Though remarkably thin, soil makes up a layer of the Earth’s crust that’s vital to human survival. The soil is a living, breathing thing that, like the body’s skin, requires care and attention lest we lose its many benefits. — From the USDA blog

Farmers Keeping Nutrients on the Field, Out of Streams

Clean water is a priority for all of us. When farmers manage nutrients, they are also helping to minimize the runoff of nutrients into local streams and rivers.

Farmers rely on two major nutrients in fertilizer — nitrogen and phosphorus — to help crops grow. When excess fertilizer leaves the field and enters local waterways in surface water runoff, those nutrients cause algae in the water to bloom much faster than it would under normal conditions. The algae eventually breaks down, and the bacteria involved in decomposition deplete oxygen in the water to unhealthily low levels. Ultimately, fish and other aquatic organisms often die as a result of this oxygen depletion. This process is called eutrophication. — From the USDA blog

DHEC in the News: Hypertension coaching program, norovirus, avoiding food poisoning

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Here’s a look at health and environmental news from around South Carolina.

Family Health Centers participating in Hypertension Coaching Program with pharmacists

One of the state’s largest community health centers is participating in a coaching program designed to help its adult patients better manage hypertension.

Family Health Centers Inc. works to serve the medically underserved and uninsured in Orangeburg, Bamberg, Calhoun and upper Dorchester counties through seven comprehensive primary care sites.

As part of its mission, the FHC has been participating in a Hypertension Coaching Program in partnership with the South Carolina Pharmacy Association. The program is funded as part of a four-year grant from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control that ends in September 2018.

General Interest

Norovirus outbreak spreads across Carolinas

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Norovirus — more commonly referred to as the stomach bug — is sweeping the Carolinas.

Just this week, more than 60 students on the campus of North Carolina State University tested positive for the illness.

In Charlotte, dozens of moms took to the popular Facebook group M2M to share their own horror stories with the contagious bug, which causes your stomach, intestines, or both to become inflamed, which leads to nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and in some cases fever and abdominal pain.

Spread joy, not food poisoning, this holiday season

One of the most rewarding parts of throwing a holiday bash is hearing the next day from guests reminiscing about how delicious and fun the prior evening was for all. What you don’t want to receive are messages about an impromptu afterparty thrown at the local emergency room. Food poisoning is a horrific holiday present to give folks as it’s a gift that could keep giving . . . for days.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 48 million people get sick from food poisoning each year, with 128,000 of them having to be hospitalized. Bouts of nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, and diarrhea are not only unpleasant reminders that you ate some bad food, but this type of foodborne illness can accelerate to the point that is life-threatening. According to the CDC, 3,000 people die annually from food poisoning.