Norovirus (gastro bug)

[rozymisty]

Well Qld seems to have it rather bad at the moment, just wondering if the other states had similar problems?

My flatmate works as an assistant nurse at the Royal Brisbane, and last week she looked after a few patients who had the virus and she got a bit of it, and i got it too, but thank god i only got headaches and nausea, none of the diarrhoea! But then this week i think it was, the whole floor my flatmate had worked on has been quaranteened, coz most of the staff ended up catching it too, which meant less nursing staff, and having to call in agency staff whcih cost a lot of money.

And its also in Cairns and Gold Coast. Pple are complaining on the news webiste that its our fault etc, but its not, its a highly contagious disease caused by people not bothering to wash their hands properly! Nurses are the ones who are always cleaning their hands in between patient contact, and are suffering with really bad dermatitis and wearing glvoes and masks and aprons to stop spreading the disease.

I started my clinical prac on Monday and one patient may have the norovirus so they've been in a single room on contact precautions, and eyah its not good to have it floating around now, especailly when DEMs are already busy with those with the flu.

I have got bad dermitis now from washing my hands with the soap all the time. Looks like measles, that rash sorta look but looks like goosebumps as well. And sometimes it itches, and the handwaash stuff we use between patients can sting-its that water free stuff that has recently been advertised on the tv, you know eg dettoll wiht that lady not touching stuff. That stings like hell! Even when your hands arent cracked! But the occupational health pple told me we dont have docs here to help you till aug 9, so go to DEM or your gp and im like stuff the DEM! Not sitting there for 3hrs just to be told to moisturise and figure out a new soap!

[op shop girl]

Out of curiousity, are nursing staff permitted to use liquid gloves (like Jungle Brolly's Hand Shield)? I keep getting sent press releases for it, but have no idea if it has a use outside of the home.
I used to get dermatitis from the gloves when I was in the hospitality industry. I got over if by not wearing the gloves - I wasn't handling food, the gloves were just encouraged when cleaning but not really needed.
If you've developed a latex allergy, moistirising isn't going to help. Try and see if you can switch to non-latex gloves, or using a barrier cream before wearing gloves.

(I've spent way to much time reading about allergies in the past two months)

[Renee_Turner]

You can also use soap-free wash (such a QV or Cetaphil), but it depends on what the hospital requires. It's probably a reaction to the gloves, you could try buying a pair of cotton gloves, and wearing them under the latex ones.

They did a test on people with Aquim - similar to the Dettol gel stuff. They gave patients leaving hospital who'd had gastro infections the Aquim, and gave a control group pamphlets about regular hand-washing. The gel group had far fewer recurrences of the illnesses than the control group. It's good stuff, though it stings like a bitch on sore skin, and you shouldn't let kids use it unsupervised. It's got such a high alcohol content that if they decide to eat a glob of it, they can get alcohol poisoning.