Kokoso Protect® Is Effective Against Norovirus
As social distancing restrictions have been lifted, we have started to see many news articles reporting unusually high numbers of norovirus outbreaks currently circulating in the UK (July 2021).
According to Public Health England (PHE), 154 norovirus outbreaks have been reported in the last five weeks, compared to an average of 53 over the same time period in the previous five years.
Most of these outbreaks have occurred in educational settings, particularly among preschool children in nurseries and childcare facilities, who are bringing the virus home, causing it to spread across all age groups.
We also know that outbreaks spread rapidly through care homes and hospitals, leading to closure of hospital wards and care homes placed in isolation until the outbreak is under control.
Alcohol based hand sanitisers do not work against norovirus, so it is vital to maintain strict hand washing procedures and apply a hygienic hand rub such as Kokoso Protect's Foaming Hand Sanitiser to kill norovirus after washing hands, or when hand washing isn’t readily available.
Kokoso Protect is scientifically proven to kill 99.999% of viruses and bacteria and offers up to 4 hours’ germ protection on our skin.
Our Foaming Hand Sanitiser and Surface Disinfectant have been successfully tested against the EN 14476 virucidal standard for hands and surfaces against norovirus.
What's more, compared to bleach, the common household disinfectant also proven to kill norovirus, our biodegradable surface spray is significantly kinder to the environment. And unlike bleach, Kokoso Protect continues to disinfectant and protect hands from the virus for up to 4 hours and surfaces for up to 24 hours after application.
Norovirus is an extremely contagious virus that causes sickness and diarrhoea. Known as the winter vomiting bug, it spreads easily and infects people of any age. Sufferers shed billions of contagious particles, and it only takes a few virus particles to make others sick. Symptoms, which can include a high temperature, abdominal pain and aching limbs as well as vomiting, appear one to two days after becoming infected.
You can get norovirus from:
- Having direct contact with an infected person
- Consuming contaminated food or water
- Touching contaminated surfaces and then putting unwashed hands in your mouth.
You can get norovirus illness many times in your life because there are many different types of noroviruses. Infection with one type of norovirus may not protect you against other types.
If you or a child has norovirus, the advice is to stay at home. Do not return to work or send children to school until 48 hours after symptoms have cleared.
Professor Paul Hunter, from the Norwich School of Medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the increase of cases of norovirus in children "almost certainly" reflected reduced immunity to this infection as a result of not being exposed to it as the country locked down for Covid.
"We have already started to see cases rising for some of the other respiratory viruses and this reminds us that as we come out of lockdown we are likely to start seeing many other infections rising that may cause problems for public health and the NHS. Doctors in New Zealand have coined the phrase 'immunity debt' to describe this phenomenon. "As yet we do not know how much of an additional burden this will cause for public health in the UK but we need to monitor this."**
