New Zealand Norovirus: More Victims, But Hospital Reopens

Dunedin Hospital in New Zealand has reopened for business after closing its doors to visitors, out-patients and new admissions in an effort to contain a recent outbreak of Norovirus.

The decision to reopen the hospital was taken despite the onset of additional cases of gastroenteritis due to this highly contagious virus. Some wards, however, remain closed.

At last count, more than 150 patients and staff at Dunedin and Wakari hospitals have been infected with Norovirus, and 30 patients remain in isolation.

In an apparently unrelated incident, Norovirus also has infected approximately about half of the 24 residents of a rest home in Greymouth, New Zealand. And, halfway around the world, Cheltenham General Hospital in Gloucestershire, England has closed a trauma ward in the hope of containing an outbreak of Norovirus gastroenteritis that has sickened an unspecified number of people.

Misery (a.k.a. Norovirus) not only loves, but also thrives on, company.