Figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) show that there were 337 confirmed laboratory reports of norovirus in the week ending December 9 2012 and 236 for the week ending 2 December 2012. The latest weekly report is now published.
In this season to date there have been 3,046 confirmed laboratory reports of norovirus. This is 83 per cent higher than the same period in the last season when there were 1,669 cases reported.
The figures for the number of hospital outbreaks show that there were 61 hospital outbreaks during the last two weeks up to December 16 2012. In the same fortnight in the previous year there were 35 outbreaks reported by the same time.
The data show that the increase in norovirus laboratory reports is earlier this season than in previous years; however, there are no indications as to why this is the case.
BBC – Schools Norovirus
BBC – Hospital Norovirus
BBC – Hospital Norovirus
Guardian – Norovirus
FoodWorld 