Is an infection with the Norovirus dangerous?
Diarrhea caused by a norovirus is a self-limiting disease that usually lasts only a few days. Especially in older people or children, the loss of fluid and dissolved electrolytes can lead to complications with circulatory problems or, in the case of an immense fluid deficiency, to confusion and disorientation. In principle, the norovirus poses no danger to an immunocompetent person.
Diagnosis of an infection with the Norovirus
If patients with diarrhea with vomiting come to their family doctor, he can make the diagnosis with a high degree of certainty from the survey alone, since the temporal sequence of the occurrence of diarrhea with vomiting is very characteristic. Further usually not only one concerning comes, because by the fast and simple spreading during the disease waves usually many concerning come within a short time into the medical practice. The connection between symptoms and the affected person of several persons allows however only a probable diagnosis, an absolute security cannot be won thereby.
However, if one wants to be sure about the infection with the Norovirus, only a stool sample can provide certainty. This must be examined in a special laboratory at great expense. For this reason, the exact examination of the stool for noroviruses is only performed in exceptional cases.
If the course of the disease is normal, the detection has no direct consequence and does not change the treatment. In addition, the result would only come when the disease has already been overcome.However, if the diarrhea persists much longer or the fever persists, the pathogen should be identified after 2 weeks at the latest. Patients suffering from a norovirus infection excrete viruses via the stool.
Accordingly, the viruses can be detected with a stool test. There is both an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and a nucleic acid detection (PCR) to test the stool for noroviruses. The PCR is considered a particularly sensitive test for the detection of a norovirus infection.
This means that sick people are actually very likely to be detected in the test. The stool sample also offers the possibility to quantify the viral load. This provides physicians with information about the infection and infectiousness.
