An Amsterdam hospital said Tuesday that an outbreak of the gastrointestinal bug, norovirus has been reported in patients on the hospital’s orthopedics/urology ward.
Officials at The Sint Lucas Andreas Hospital said at least six patients on the ward have contracted the contagious virus.
New patients are not be added to the floor, while current patients and staff are not being moved to other areas of the hospital.
The hospital is cleaning and sanitizing the area.
Norovirus is a highly contagious viral illness that often goes by other names, such as viral gastroenteritis, stomach flu, and food poisoning. For more infectious disease news and information, visit and “like” the Infectious Disease News Facebook page.
The symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and some stomach cramping. Sometimes people additionally have a low-grade fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, and a general sense of tiredness. The illness often begins suddenly, and the infected person may feel very sick. In most people, the illness is self-limiting with symptoms lasting for about 1 or 2 days.
In general, children experience more vomiting than adults do.
Norovirus is spread person to person particularly in crowded, closed places. Norovirus is typically spread through contaminated food and water, touching surfaces or objects contaminated with norovirus and then putting your hand or fingers in your mouth and close contact with someone who is vomiting or has diarrhea.
Norovirus causes more than 20 million illnesses annually, and it is the leading cause of gastroenteritis outbreaks in the United States.
Related: Imported MERS virus case reported in Dutch patient, first such case in the Netherlands
