Doctors seeing more cases of stomach viruses this winter - KHOU.com

HOUSTON — It's another big weekend for holiday travel and in the midst of all the hustle, is real concern for your health. Doctors are seeing a lot of gastrointestinal viruses, often called stomach bugs.

Dr. Michael Chang, who practices medicine on behalf of UT Health and Memorial Hermann, says the key to prevention is washing your hands for either at least 20 seconds under water or with hand sanitizer. If you use hand sanitizer, Dr. Chang urges you to let the alcohol-based sanitizer air dry, rather than wiping your hands dry.

"We do see a lot of stomach bugs this time of year," said Dr. Chang. He says one of the most common G.I. viruses is, "something called Rotavirus. Again, infecting kids mostly under the age of five, but can infect adults as well."

Some of the main systems of rotavirus are: abdominal pain, vomiting and severe watery diarrhea.

"We think about those as being mostly spread through fecal/oral transmission," said Dr. Chang. "And so, coming in to direct contact and then swallowing the virus. And so the best way to really prevent that is good hand hygiene/hand washing."

The possible reasons for seeing an increase in people contracting the stomach bug is more people are spending time indoors and holiday travel. You're coming into contact with more people.

So, if you feel sick: stay home!

"If you’re traveling on a plane, if you board last, you may come in contact less with people that are standing in line," said Dr. Chang. "If you take a window seat, you know you’re not in aisle. People touch your stuff less. And if you are on a plane, you can wipe down the tray with the disposable sanitizing wipes and the armrests."

And most importantly, wash your hands.

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