How do you protect yourself?

I am not sure if you have seen the news this week but hundreds of cruise passengers have had to be quarantined in their cabin on board the Aida Prima after a stomach bug spread rapidly through the cruise ship leaving over 300 people with a vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea.

The ship left Palma, Majorca on 22nd September and was heading towards Corsica, Rome, Florence and Barcelona. Doctors on board were overwhelmed and confined those affected to their cabins.

It just brings to mind how important it is to know how to protect yourself – not even just when you are on a cruise ship – but at all times in public areas.

You can catch the norovirus in several ways including touching surfaces or objects contaminated with the norovirus and then touching their mouth before hand washing or having direct contact with another person who is infected.

There are no specific medicine to treat people affected by this bug. Antibiotics don’t help because they fight bacteria and not viruses so re-hydration, rest and coping through it is the only way.

Below are the best ways to try prevent you catching the virus:

1. Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and water, particularly after using the toilet and before going near food.
2. Don’t rely on using hand sanitiser. It doesn’t work on preventing these kind of bugs so hot, soapy water is the only way to go
3. When washing your hands make sure its for 20 seconds at least. If you dont have a timer handy then sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice and this will do the trick (but might get some strange looks off the other passengers).
4. After washing your hands don’t make to rookie mistake of using your hands to switch off the tap. You are just reintroducing bugs to your hands again. Use a paper towel to switch it off
5. Use disposable paper towels to dry your hands

You can’t control other people’s actions so even if you follow all of the above there is a chance you could still catch a pesky bug on board but by taking the measure above you are greatly reducing your chances.