Cases of norovirus are beginning to increase in areas of the U.S. But, experts say, you can’t rely on hand sanitizer alone to protect you from this particular bug. Instead, there are other ways to keep yourself and your home safe during norovirus season.
Norovirus causes gastrointestinal symptoms like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps. It can spread quickly in places where people are sharing living spaces, such as on cruise ships, and outbreaks tend to spike at this time of year.
Cases of norovirus, sometimes called the “winter vomiting disease,” do typically rise around this time of year. But the last norovirus season was particularly thanks to the emergence of a highly contagious variant of the virus, TODAY.com explained recently.
This season, as cases begin to tick up, experts are concerned that the same variant may drive another severe winter norovirus season. Already, wastewater data indicate that prevalence of the virus is high nationwide.
So, what’s the best way to keep yourself safe and your home norovirus-free?
How Does Norovirus Spread?
Norovirus is very contagious, and can spread from person to person quickly and easily.
Specifically, it spreads through viral particles contained in feces and vomit. This route is what’s known as “fecal-oral transmission,” Dr. Craig Wilen, associate professor of laboratory medicine and immunology at the Yale School of Medicine, tells TODAY.com.
There are two main ways norovirus particles go from person to person, Wilen says. They can spread via direct human contact. Or the virus can spread through fomites, “which are basically any contaminated object where the virus can get on,” explains Wilen, whose research focuses specifically on how noroviruses spread.
Those viral particles can contaminate food, water and surfaces that can then go on to infect other people. Essentially, viral particles from feces or vomit get onto someone’s hand or land on a surface, such as kitchen countertops or toilet handles, which someone else then touches. Having explosive vomiting or diarrhea — or not closing the lid on the toilet when flushing — disperses the particles even further, Wilen adds.
Once on a surface, “the virus can be stable for days, if not longer,” Wilen says, “and then someone can touch that surface or eat something that has the virus on it and get infected that way.”
Unlike some other viruses, norovirus does not spread through the air, Wilen notes, so wearing a mask won’t prevent you from getting infected.
While people with norovirus are most contagious when they have symptoms (especially vomiting), they can continue to spread the virus for two weeks or even longer.
It’s also possible to have very mild symptoms or no symptoms at all while infected with norovirus, Wilen says. “They can shed the virus asymptomatically, and it’s likely those people that are helping to initiate these outbreaks,” he explains.
Does Hand Sanitizer Kill Norovirus?
Alcohol-based hand sanitizer is simply not as effective against norovirus as it at killing other pathogens due to the virus’s firm shell, Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told TODAY.com previously.
There are two major categories of viruses, Wilen explains: enveloped and non-enveloped.
Enveloped viruses, like influenza and coronaviruses, are encased in a lipid bilayer. “It’s the lipids that are really susceptible to ethanol-based hand sanitizers,” Wilen explains, which break down that outer layer and inactivate the virus.
Norovirus, on the other hand, is a non-enveloped virus. It’s encased in a hard, protein-based shell called a capsid. That shell is “pretty environmentally stable,” Wilen says, “and that’s what makes it relatively resistant to ethanol-based hand sanitizers.”
Washing your hands with soap and water is a much more effective way to protect yourself from norovirus. That’s because “soap is a detergent, and it can dissolve and break apart the capsid and inactivate the virus pretty efficiently,” he explains.
“You have to use soap and water, which literally picks up the virus and washes it down the drain,” Schaffner explained. Washing your hands both inactivates the virus and flushes it off your skin.
While there is research to suggest that hand sanitizers can be “somewhat effective,” Wilen notes, “soap is definitely the way to go.”
So, while you can use hand sanitizer in addition to washing your hands, hand sanitizer is not an effective replacement for hand-washing when it comes to preventing norovirus.
Best Household Cleaner to Kill Norovirus
Norovirus is not susceptible to alcohol-based cleaning products.
But certain household cleaners, particularly bleach-based disinfectants, are effective at killing the virus, Dr. Luis Ostrosky, an infectious disease specialist at UTHealth Houston and Memorial Hermann in Houston, told TODAY.com previously.
In particular, bleach wipes are very effective against norovirus, Wilen says, adding that his norovirus research team relies on bleach to stay safe in the lab.
Keep in mind that, unlike many other viruses, there is no vaccine or drug treatment available for norovirus, Wilen says. So knowing how to protect yourself and prevent the spread is key to keeping this virus in check.
How to Actually Protect Yourself From Norovirus
Because hand sanitizer isn’t as effective against norovirus, you’ll need to properly wash your hands in order to protect yourself.
That means:
- Wash your hands with soap and water.
- Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds at a time.
- Wash your hands frequently.
You should always take care to wash your hands properly after using the toilet or changing diapers, before giving yourself or someone else medicine as well as before eating, preparing or handling food.
Properly handling food and quickly cleaning up bathroom areas after someone has diarrhea can also help prevent the spread of norovirus.
