Doctors warn of contagious norovirus as stomach bug making the ... - FOX13 Memphis

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - As if you need another reason to wash your hands, there is another virus going around.

Cases of the highly contagious norovirus, commonly known as the stomach bug or the stomach flu, are circulating, and it's hitting Mid-South schools hard.

"It was back-to-back," Sandy Pratcher, of Memphis, said. "It was, like, she threw up, like, eight times within a day. And it was the same thing over and over again."

As urgent care parking lots across the area fill up with cars, more families like Pratcher's are coming down with a bug.

"Once I get home," Pratcher said, "two more of my kids are throwing up, and I am like, 'Oh my God,' what is going on?"

Pratcher said she and all five of her kids got sick.

FOX13 interviewed her virtually because they're still at home recovering.

"I have never experienced that, and I don't want to experience it again," Pratcher said.

Many viruses cause gastroenteritis, which is commonly known as the stomach flu.

The most common is called the norovirus. Vomiting, diarrhea, fever and muscle aches are the trade-mark symptoms.

"They can circulate at any time of year, common in school classes and the like, and it can spread very quickly," Dr. Steve Threlkeld, an infectious disease specialist at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, said. "The kids then take it to the families, and it could spread through the entire family quite quickly."

While symptoms tend only to last a few days, Dr. Threlkeld said the elderly and very young children are most at risk.

"The biggest problems that we have is when someone can't keep things down," he said. "They continue to lose fluids through diarrhea, vomiting. They can get pretty sick from those sorts of things."

If someone in your household has it, doctors say proper hand washing and cleaning commonly touched surfaces can keep it from spreading.

"My advice is the best thing that I did for my kids to get over it is to keep your kids hydrated," Pratcher said.

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