Viral gastroenteritis is more common during the winter and early spring. As the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday is fast approaching, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) advises the public to pay additional attention to personal and food hygiene during holiday gatherings and when dinging out. Hotel and restaurant workers are also urged to maintain environmental cleanliness at all times and pay attention to the health and wellbeing of all employees. Moreover, hotel and restaurant workers, including chefs and kitchen staff, are advised to stay home and rest when experiencing discomfort to prevent further spread of the virus.

According to the surveillance data compiled by Taiwan CDC, during the past four weeks (Weeks 1 and 4 in 2016), the total numbers of people visiting emergency department for acute gastroenteritis in the nation respectively are 98,766, 116,549, 114,585, and 118,226. During the same time, the proportions of patients seeking emergency department for acute gastroenteritis respectively are 2.65%, 2.77%, 2.74%, and 2.71%. The surveillance data also shows that most patients are children aged between 0 and 6. Thus far this year, a total of 27 viral gastroenteritis clusters have been confirmed. The majority of the clusters were caused by norovirus and they occurred mostly in schools and among hotel and restaurant workers.

To prevent viral gastroenteritis, wash your hands frequently with soap and water, especially after using the toilet and always before eating and preparing food; cook oysters and other shellfish thoroughly before consuming them; refrigerate leftover foods; and consume all perishable products as soon as possible. In addition, restaurants and hotels where viral gastroenteritis clusters have previously occurred during the past holiday are urged to disinfect the environment, especially the kitchen and bathrooms, and maintain environmental cleanliness at all times. If any of the employees experience any discomfort, especially kitchen staff, please ask them to seek immediate medical attention, rest at home, and only resume work 48 hours after symptoms are relieved.

The primary symptoms of viral gastroenteritis include watery diarrhea and vomiting. Other possible symptoms include headache, fever, abdominal cramps, stomach ache, nausea, and muscle aches. Further, norovirus infection can cause severe vomiting. The public is warned that viral gastroenteritis is highly contagious. Among the viruses that cause gastroenteritis, norovirus can affect people of all age, especially children under the age of 6. When experiencing symptoms pertaining to viral gastroenteritis, please refrain from touching and handling food, avoid visiting friends and relatives and rest at home as soon as possible. When someone in the household becomes infected, please take the following measures to prevent further spread of the virus: immediately change bedding, clothing, and towels used by patients; disinfect the environment and all surfaces used by patients with 1,000 ppm chorine solution; put on gloves and masks when handling patients’ excretions and disinfect the excretions with 5,000 ppm chorine solution before flushing them away; and always wash hands thoroughly after handling patients’ excretions.

Taiwan CDC reminds the public to wash hands frequently, maintain personal and environmental hygiene, consume only thoroughly cooked foods, and always use the serving utensils to take food when sharing food with others in order to ward off infection. If symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting or others that pertain to gastroenteritis, please seek prompt medical attention and rest at home. For more information, please visit the Taiwan CDC website at http://www.cdc.gov.tw or call the toll-free Communicable Disease Reporting and Consultation Hotline, 1922 (or 0800-001922).