Health Officer Recommendations
Long-Term Care Facility or Assisted-Living Facility:
April 12, 2006
To help you and your staff address and meet the challenges an outbreak of Norovirus can cause in your facility, we have prepared a package, which contains the following:
Norovirus is a highly contagious virus causing vomiting and diarrhea. In care facilities and retirement homes such as your own, it can endanger the health of the residents and staff, and exacerbate staffing shortages at a time when increased staffing can actually help to control and shorten the duration of the outbreak.
Rapidly identifying an outbreak and quickly implementing effective infection control measures is crucial to preventing the further spread of Norovirus. If you have not already done so at your facility, establish a way to detect when cases of diarrhea and vomiting exceed the norm or baseline for your residents.
The moment an outbreak is suspected, report your suspicion to the Marion County Health Department immediately, (503) 588-5621, and implement the infection control measures recommended in this package.
Reporting a suspected outbreak immediately can help you access resources designed to help stop the spread of Norovirus and ultimately protect the health of those living and working in your facility.
The Marion County Health Department epidemiology team, consisting of public health nurses, a public health officer, and environmental health specialists, is trained to help you respond and institute infection control measures.
Some important staffing measures include:
Keep ill food service workers or servers from preparing or handling food;
Keep ill employees home for 72 hours after vomiting and diarrhea stop;
Cohort employees who have recovered from the illness with currently ill residents.
We hope this information will help you if and when a Norovirus outbreak occurs in your facility. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at (503) 588-5621.
Sincerely,
Karen Landers, MD, MPH
Public Health Officer
Marion County Health Department