SA Health has recorded at least 60 gastro-related outbreaks this month, the majority in Adelaide, an almost nine times increase on the seven reported in January last year.Most reported outbreaks across the state – including 17 last month – are in childcare centres and aged care homes but this number is likely higher as there is no legal obligation to report viral gastroenteritis.Authorities have urged people to practice good hand hygiene through soap and water and not just hand sanitiser to combat the virus surge.While SA Health’s Communicable Disease Control Branch has found no link to the outbreaks with sanitiser use over hand washing, other experts believe it may have contributed to the surge.After months of being urged to use hand sanitiser to help fight coronavirus, experts say the public may be confused into thinking they could use such alcohol-based products to fight a norovirus infection, which is one of the causes of gastro.The popular product, which has become a hygiene go-to amid the global pandemic, is less effective on “non-enveloped” norovirus because it has a different structure from COVID-19.It doesn’t clean a person’s skin properly, especially with any dirt or grime present. Soap and water does, however, remove both viruses as well as other germs before washing it away down a sink.
Senior Flinders University environmental health lecturer Dr Harriet Whiley said it was possible increased hand sanitiser use could be behind the new gastro surge.“I think if you have a lot of hand sanitiser lying around you would tend to use that and people might be forgetting that, so it is a timely reminder,” she said.“It is important to wash hands, especially the fingertips and then dry them. Wash your hands and use hand sanitiser in between.”She has experienced the problem first hand in her southern suburbs household after her one year old daughter fell ill with gastro.“It has been a fun and interesting week,” she said.“We can’t send our daughter back to childcare until there has been no diarrhoea for 48 hours.”Viral gastro symptoms can take between two and three days to develop and include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, fever, abdominal pain, headache or muscle aches.Symptoms usually last between one and two days but the virus can stay in the body for up to a fortnight.While gastroenteritis is a common illness, it can be quite serious for young children, the elderly, and people with pre-existing health conditions.The virus is highly infectious and can spread easily from person-to-person via hands, objects, surfaces or food that has been contaminated by faeces or vomit.SA Health has issued an urgent alert for families to keep sick children at home and to practise good hand hygiene amid the mounting level of outbreaks.CDCB director Dr Louise Flood, whose team has led the state’s COVID-19 fightback, said better hand hygiene was one of the most effective ways of stopping infections, such as gastro, spreading.“Washing hands with soap and water is the best way to reduce the number of germs on hands and should always be encouraged over the use of alcohol based hand sanitisers in a non-healthcare setting,” she said.“Soap and water should always be used when there is visible soiling, unless soap and water are not available.”
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