BRESCIA. For over 10 days, episodes of acute gastroenteritis have occurred in the Tonale area, which extends between the provinces of Brescia and Trento both among local residents and visitors. The mayor of Ponte di Legno, Ivan Faustinelli, took the initiative to involve the Health Protection Company to conduct an investigation and analyze water samples taken from the Tonale water network.
The cause is a very contagious virus, the Norovirus, the most frequent cause of acute gastroenteritis of non-bacterial origin. «The waters supplied from the aforementioned sources must be considered not suitable for drinking purposes and for incorporation in foods, for washing fruit and vegetables and for oral hygiene», we read in the ordinance issued by the Municipality of Ponte di Legno (in the province of Brescia) regarding the presence of Norovirus in the municipal aqueduct. The presence of the virus was discovered by water analyzes by the Mountain ATS.
What Norovirus looks like under a microscope
The Municipality of Ponte di Legno, in addition to the ordinance, which «prohibits the use of water for food purposes, to protect public safety», explained that «Norovirus can appear in water in exceptional cases and can be eradicated by sanitizing the network» water.
Symptoms
Just like seasonal flu, Norovirus is at its most prevalent in the winter months. Causes vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps, as the Istituto Superiore di Sanità explains. The course of the disease resolves within a few days in healthy subjects, but can debilitate children and the elderly. Norovirus is very contagious (both orally and airborne), through both food and water, and strikes quickly and aggressively. The lack of treatments contributes to its potency. In fact, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Every year around 20 million Americans contract it, around 70 thousand hospitalizations and almost 800 deaths.
An attack on the immune system
The target of Norovirus are B cells present in the intestinal wall, particularly in the ileum. These are Peyer’s patches, lymphoid aggregates made up of large follicles of B cells, which constitute one of our first defense systems against external attacks. Some bacteria in the intestinal flora would facilitate the attack of the virusthe so-called commensal bacteria, on whose surface the virus binds.
