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A lot of people may have seen news such as “Gastrointestinal cold is prevalent.” Do you understand the gastrointestinal cold correctly?

Gastrointestinal cold is an infectious disease called “Infectious Gastroenteritis”. The number of people infected will increase from the beginning of November and will peak in December. After that, it will decrease temporarily, it will increase again in January to March, and then it gradually decreases.

The Norovirus and Adenovirus in winter, infection by Rotavirus in spring and early summer are more frequent. Also, bacterial ones such as Vibrio Parahaemolyticus and so-called food poisoning are the causes of gastroenteritis in the summer.

Thus, gastroenteritis occurs throughout the year. Let’s know more about the symptoms of gastroenteritis and the route of infection and try to prevent it.

Main symptoms

The symptoms have the characteristic of abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, mild fever etc. It usually recovers in a few days to a week. However, in severe symptoms, it may cause dehydration or recovery of more than a week.

If symptoms persist, go to a medical institution and take a medical examination.

Infection route

In most cases infectious gastroenteritis is infected by contact with the patient (feces, vomit, etc.), contaminated water, food and oral virus and bacteria entering the body.

Prevention method

Please pay attention to the following points and try to prevent it.

1. Hand washing

• Wash hands thoroughly with soap in running water before and after cooking, before meals, after using the toilet, after changing diapers, and so on.
• If there are infected people in the household, please do not share towels etc after hand washing, please use another one.

2. Points to remember when treating waste (vomit and feces) of infected person

• Wear masks and disposable gloves and do not touch the waste directly.
• Keep the room well ventilated such as opening the windows.
• When wiping a dirty floor with, wipe it with a chlorine disinfectant of sodium hypochlorite or a household chlorine bleach (diluted with a chlorine concentration of 0.02%) and disinfect it.
• Put the used cloth and paper towels in a plastic bag, seal, disinfect, and throw it away.

3. Heating food and cooking utensils

• Make sure the foods are well cooked and heat the food sufficiently.
• Immediately wash the cutting board and kitchen knife used for cooking with hot water.

4. Vaccination

• Rotavirus can be vaccinated voluntarily for infants.

If infected with a gastroenteritis, painful symptoms can last long. Treatment is often a symptomatic treatment (relieving symptoms or losing symptoms by promoting the release of bacteria and viruses rather than directly removing the cause of the disease), and it takes time to recover. Therefore, prevention is very important. Please use this information by all means to protect your family including yourself.

＊Reference＊（in Japanese only）

http://www.kenkou.pref.mie.jp/topic/ityou/ityou.htm

http://www.pref.mie.lg.jp/TOPICS/m0014900034.htm

http://www.city.yokkaichi.lg.jp/www/contents/1509495290979/index.html