In Berlin hospitals, there has been a sharp increase in hospital infections in the fall of 2017 – especially with the highly contagious gastrointestinal germ norovirus. This is currently spreading by leaps and bounds throughout Germany.
In Germany the Norovirus goes around. Last year in Berlin hospitals, a total of 225 outbreaks, in which 1.763 patients in hospitals infected with germs. In 2016, there were 59 outbreaks, affecting 424 patients. That goes out from the answer of the senate administration for health to a FDP inquiry. Depending on the germ, hospital infections are reportable.
Noroviruses: vomiting and diarrhea
The main cause of the increase in 2017 was infections with noroviruses, which can cause vomiting and diarrhea. This germ was responsible for 141 outbreaks on wards alone, of which 1.302 patients were affected.
Infections have been reported in these cities in Germany
The virus has increasingly broken out in northern Germany. In the past few days, according to the Hamburger Abendblatt, 40 cases have been reported to the health department of the district of North Friesland. 14 people in a tour group from Hamburg were struck by norovirus while vacationing at a Husum hotel and were hospitalized. 47 patients have been affected since the beginning of December in the Steinburg district around Itzehoe. In Paderborn, nine patients so far, according to local news. Six employees sickened – plus there are two suspected cases. Norovirus is present in hospital St. St. John's pen outbreak. The virus also spread at the Johannes-Wesling-Klinikum in Minden. There were twelve reported ill in the geriatric ward on Wednesday. The Bethel Protestant Hospital (EvKB) in Bielefeld is also battling the pathogen. In Netphen near Siegen, 20 cases of the disease have been reported in the care facility Haus St. Elizabeth confirmed. At least eleven people in Leipzig contracted the norovirus. In the district of Constance on Lake Constance, 45 cases of the disease have been reported since the beginning of December, mainly in kindergartens and nursing homes for the elderly.
Norovirus on board: 200 cruise passengers ill
But not only in Germany there are increased cases of infection with the norovirus. 200 passengers fell ill on a Christmas cruise in Australia. They suffered from gastrointestinal illnesses triggered by the norovirus during the two-week cruise to New Zealand. The germ spreads easily when many people are together in a confined space.
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