BRIGHT blue and shaped like a snowflake, the Norovirus almost looks like something you’d put on your Christmas tree.

In reality, as visitors who have been temporarily prevented from accessing Poole Hospital know, it has the power to disrupt lives, as well as making you feel very, very ill.

The measures have been taken at the hospital after reports indicated a spike in the virus in the local population.

But when you consider that in some years, up to a million of us have succumbed, it looks like a wise precaution.

But what is Norovirus and what can we do to prevent it?

According to the NHS, it is believed to lose around £100million each year because of the bug and its effects. Norovirus is one of a group of SRSV’s – small round structured viruses – a name which barely does credit to their ability to make us feel like death warmed up. Norovirus’s main entertainment is infecting our intestines, causing vomiting and diarrhoea, but according to victims that’s only the half of it.

Patients report projectile vomiting which starts a matter of minutes from the onset of vicious stomach cramps. “I was vomiting every ten minutes or so,” complains one sufferer. Another told the NHS: “If you are unfortunate enough to catch this, be prepared for the worst 24 to 36 hours of hell. It’s that bad.” Still another said: “You wish yourself dead.”

It sounds horrendous, but the vast majority of victims make a full recovery within a few days and will suffer no lasting damage. However, if Norovirus is contracted by the very elderly, babies, or someone weakened by serious disease or who’s undergone an operation, the infection can lead to serious dehydration, plus high temperatures and it hampers the ability to recover from operations.

With their warm environments and close human contact hospitals are virtually a five-star hotel for the disease, although it’s happy to rampage through prisons, dormitories, holiday camps and cruise liners.

It only takes one or two infected particles to cause an outbreak and those particles are passed on food but can also adhere themselves to door and toilet handles, furniture, toys, computer terminals and phones. Breathing the air near someone who has vomited and, if that wasn’t gruesome enough, inhaling the air created by a toilet flush from an infected person can also trigger an infection. But the real reason Norovirus is so successful is its longevity. Unless it’s wiped away with an appropriate cleaning agent it can live on surfaces for several weeks.

However, as the NHS is keen to point out, prevention is simple: wash your hands, especially before eating and always, always after visiting the bathroom.

When visiting hospital make full use of the disinfectant hand-gel – the Royal Bournemouth Hospital is already proactively asking visitors and those arriving on the premises to use it before moving round the buildings.

Dr David Philips is director of public health for NHS Bournemouth and Poole and NHS Dorset Cluster says: “It is important that people with symptoms of these gastric bugs should not visit friends or relatives in hospitals, nursing or residential care homes, and stay away from other people as far as possible until they are symptom free.

“By doing this, everyone in the local community – especially the sick – have the best chance of getting back to normal as soon as possible.”

How to beat the bug

Every year, norovirus – sometimes known as the winter vomiting bug, although it can strike at any time – affects between 600,000 and a million people in the UK.

It causes a sudden sick feeling, followed by vomiting and/or diarrhoea. Some people also have a raised temperature, headache, stomach cramp and aching limbs.

Although unpleasant, norovirus tends to be short-lived, with most people recovering within a couple of days. To avoid dehydration, drink water. If symptoms continue for more than three days, or you feel severely dehydrated, get medical help immediately.

Although norovirus is not dangerous, it spreads very easily. To reduce the risk of passing it on, stay away from work and other people for 48 hours after the last symptom.

To avoid the bug, wash hands thoroughly, especially before eating.