Some Winter Olympics athletes are falling ailing with norovirus, and Team USA says it’s staying “dialed in” to curb the spread of the widespread stomach bug.
The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee is continuous measures to defend athletes from infections like norovirus, says Carrie Aprik, winter sports activities dietitian for the committee.
“These cases are a good reminder for us to stay dialed in our hygiene strategies — most importantly, frequent handwashing,” Aprik stated in an electronic mail Tuesday. “We also encourage our whole delegation to stay in close contact with the medical staff as soon as any symptoms arise.”
Cases of norovirus have been recognized amongst Team Finland, the International Olympic Committee stated final week, postponing a girls’s ice hockey recreation with Canada. The recreation will now be performed Thursday.
The determination to postpone the sport was made “collectively and in accordance with established health and safety principles,” the IOC stated.
The virus has additionally been recognized in a single member of Team Switzerland. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a norovirus outbreak as “two or more similar illnesses resulting from a common exposure,” however IOC officers have declined to name these instances an outbreak.
Norovirus is the leading infectious cause of vomiting and diarrhea on this planet. It spreads simply amongst folks, particularly on cruise ships and in different places the place folks dwell in shut proximity.
It’s additionally been recognized at earlier Winter Olympics. At the 2018 Games in South Korea, as an example, officers scrambled to include the identical virus.
“Illness mitigation is always top of mind,” Aprik wrote, including that measures to scale back spread embody disinfecting surfaces, frequent handwashing, avoiding sharing private gadgets like water bottles and following meals security practices.
The virus has the potential to trigger giant outbreaks, stated Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who is just not concerned within the Winter Olympic Games.
“The concern for the Olympics is that we hope to prevent a large number of people coming down with norovirus to avoid a disruption in competition. Ways to do that would be to isolate people who do have the disease and to quarantine people who’ve been exposed, and also to ensure there is good hand hygiene,” Barouch stated.
The “main risk,” he added, is that this virus is very contagious and there have a tendency to be extra instances throughout this time of yr.
“Whether that’s because people spend more time indoors or in closed settings, we’re not sure, but cases do go up in the wintertime,” Barouch stated.
When somebody is uncovered to norovirus, they often develop signs shortly, inside 12 to 48 hours, and the commonest signs embody diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and stomach ache.
“The good news is that most people recover from it very quickly, too,” Barouch stated.
Although there is no such thing as a particular antiviral therapy for the illness, “the most important thing for people who have it is to stay hydrated,” Barouch stated. “If there is very severe nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, then people might need to go to the hospital for hydration or electrolytes. But for the vast majority of people, they might feel terrible for a couple days, but most people do recover very quickly.”
If an athlete have been to get sick with norovirus, “from a nutrition standpoint, ill athletes and staff are encouraged to maintain fluid/electrolyte intake to prevent dehydration, eat small/frequent meals and snacks of items that are easily digestible and palatable and consume key nutrients that can potentially lessen the length and severity of symptoms, such as zinc and probiotics,” Aprik wrote.
Food security and stopping illness are an “incredibly serious” operation amongst Olympic groups, stated registered dietitian Edwin Johnson, director of medical diet providers at South Brooklyn Health in New York, who is just not concerned with the Winter Olympics athletes however has expertise in sports activities efficiency.
“It’s a massive logistical operation. You have to remember that for these athletes, food isn’t just fuel; it’s a safety variable. If a swimmer gets food poisoning 24 hours before a race, four years of training just evaporated,” Johnson wrote in an electronic mail.
“The advice we give is actually pretty similar to what you’d tell a smart traveler, just dialed up to an eleven. The golden rule is ‘familiarity over adventure.’ The Games are not the time to be an adventurous eater or try that spicy street food you saw on Instagram. We tell them to stick to what their gut knows,” he stated.
“Beyond that, it’s about defensive eating. We recommend they avoid tap water unless it’s explicitly cleared, which includes ice in drinks and even brushing teeth in some regions. We tell them to skip raw foods like sushi or rare steaks, and even raw vegetables that might have been washed in local water,” he stated.
“It sounds basic, but in a high-traffic environment like the Olympic Village, washing your hands before you eat is probably the single most effective thing an athlete can do to stay in the competition.”