How To Avoid Norovirus - WSAV: News, Weather, and Sports for Savannah, GA

Nausea, pains and diarrhea. If the thought of about five days of that makes you sick to your stomach----keep reading.

You can act now to dodge the Norovirus that's creeping in during this busy flu season.

Nurse practitioner Sam Draude at Doctors Express in Beaufort stresses routine hand washing with warm water--but also washing your food---particularly fruits and veggies before you prepare and eat them.

"It's spread through contaminated foods and liquids," Draude said.  "Don't share utensils, don't share drinks with people if you suspect they're ill or you suspect you yourself are ill avoid sharing food with others and also avoid preparing food for others."

This is not something to play around with or that you can treat on your own.  Draude says if you start getting symptoms, get to a doctor right away.

"Typically the medications that we get to treat nausea are prescription only so you have to visit a medical provider to get something to treat the nausea," she said.  "The idea is if we can treat the nausea- we can get people to push those fluids."

The Centers for Disease Control is reporting the Norovirus outbreak in 47 states. It's not only spread through food but surfaces people touch--so keeping them clean with a bleach solution is recommended.

While anyone can get this virus, it is especially dangerous for the elderly and children.

The Norovirus leads to dehydration and generally when people feel like they have to vomit--they don't want to drink anything.