Stomach flu cases are surging, some severe enough that people in the Chicago area are heading to the emergency room. And it all comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning about a new stomach bug rising in prevalence.
“We are seeing a lot of people come in with the stomach flu,” said Dr. Evelyn Huang, an emergency room physician at both Northwestern Medicine and Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
Huang said the most common stomach bug is norovirus. Recent data from the CDC shows a rise in norovirus cases in the Midwest in recent weeks.
While most norovirus cases typically occur between November and April in a given year, cases in the Midwest have spiked dramatically since mid-January, according to the latest metrics.
“We’re seeing a lot of children, and adults too, who are concerned either because they’re immunocompromised, because they’ve had symptoms for a long time,” Huang said.
Norovirus, often referred to as the stomach flu, though it is not related to influenza, “is a very contagious virus that causes vomiting and diarrhea” in people of all ages, the CDC states.
“Typically people will see symptoms around 24 to 48 hours after they’ve developed the virus and symptoms can last two to three to four days,” Huang said.