Norovirus, a highly contagious virus has recently been found at St. Charles East High School in Illinois. The school was shut down for two days when 800 students and 50 staff members were believed to have come in contact with it.

The school reopened Thursday, Jan 11, 48 hours after the outbreak had occurred.  The Kane County health department who had been working with the Illinois State Health department suspected Norovirus after the infected students had the following symptoms of diarrhea, stomach pains, nausea and vomiting. The school has 2,500 students in the student body as well as 100 members in staff. There are an average of 19 to 21 million cases per year, and the death rate is from 570 to 700 people per year.

According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, Norovirus can be found in fruits, vegetables and shellfish. The virus can still spread days after a person has recovered from it. Transmission mainly occurs through contact with surfaces, foods and people infected with Norovirus. Norovirus is one of the biggest food contaminating viruses in the United states, taking credit for almost 50 percent of country’s food borne related illnesses.

Since it is a virus it cannot be simply cured with any medicine or antibiotics. The CDC recommends to “Drink plenty of liquids to replace fluid lost from throwing up and diarrhea.” Several cases of Norovirus has popped up across the United states, with 3 cases currently found in Delaware and several college students in Michigan.The CDC predicts that the virus will spread more rapidly in Febuary.