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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, November 14, 2013 | 10 Official confirms norovirus is behind outbreak continued from p.4 had a cluster, which is way out of the ordinary for us, to have five to six people simultaneously sick and we also had five staff sick over the weekend," he said. Three of the 11 people affected were symptom-free for more than 24 hours as of yesterday, which means the outbreak is resolving, said Rau -- there are currently 33 patients in OTMH's 4E medical unit. "Once we see at least four (consecutive) days of no new cases, then we say it's fine and we relax the restrictions," he said. Rau explained outbreaks like this one traditionally happen once to twice a year at a hospital -- at OTMH, it occurred earlier in January and February. Rau said a norovirus is seldom deadly, except in the elderly and very young, and for the most part, it is a benign, short-lived illness that can last anywhere between 10-48 hours. It is, however, extremely contagious. "It can spread like wildfire and that's why we're so drastic in our approach in terms of restricting visitors and family from coming (to OTMH) and also, at the same time, trying to keep that ward operational to avoid a gridlock problem, backing people into the emergency It (norovirus) can spread like wildfire and that's why we're so drastic in our approach in terms of restricting visitors and family from coming (to OTMH) and also, at the same time, trying to keep that ward operational to avoid a gridlock problem, backing people into the emergency room. The BestDressed Houses Are Wearing Spectacularly Designed Kitchens. Ope n We E x t e n d / Th d u r s ue d H o u r ntil 8 s pm. NEW ! room," he said. "We're treating it like three separate wards, an operational part that's clean, a group of people who have been exposed, and another group who are sick." With a norovirus, there is no antibiotic or antivirus that can be administered -- it essentially has to run its course. In terms of prevention, Rau explains, one of the keys is to restrict the number of visitors coming into the ward because they can start passing the illness onto other patients. "Then we try to segregate those who are sick, from those who are exposed, from new admis- Halton Healthcare Services medical director of infection prevention and control Dr. Neil Rau, 4265 Fairview Street, Burlington 905.634.9556 (between Walkers & Appleby Line) Other Showrooms: 140 Hester Street, Hamilton 905.667.4710 Applewood Village Plaza, 1077 North Service Road, Mississauga 905.275.9556 emeraldkitchens .ca sions, and then we try to segregate the staffing as well," he said. Because a norovirus is so resilient, says Rau, it can be spread easily, contaminating commonlytouched surfaces, such as keyboards, elevator buttons and handrails. "You have to do some aggressive cleaning to get rid of it -- sometimes using bleach-based compounds," he said. 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