Norovirus Vaccine in the works

With all of the news about Norovirus lately, it is nice to hear of a positive development in this field.

According to the Huffington Post a vaccine for Norovirus is being worked on at Arizona State University. It will be an inactivated vaccine in the form of a powder puff which will be administered nasally.

So maybe in the future when you are planning your next cruise vacation the packing list will look something like this: Swimmsuit (check), sunglasses( check), sunscreen, shorts, shirt, etc (check), and lastly Norovirus vaccine (check).

Right now the vaccine is having about a 50% success rate which will need to be increased but the vaccine looks promising. Immunity to noroviruses tends to be similar to influenza viruses so the vaccine would likely need to be administered annually.

In the meantime, while we wait for an effective vaccine, the best precautions are to wash your hands before eating/preparing food and to stay home from work/school if you are sick.

--Elena Jordan
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/02/17/powder-puff-vaccine-for-norovirus-vomiting-bug_n_1284886.html