![]() "If possible, try to keep your defecation far from the trail and bury it, and don't prepare food anywhere near where you're using the restroom or vomiting," she says. This is not the time to try to push ahead but to rest and hydrate. This is for your own safety, and for the sake of others, "so you aren't seeding norovirus particles along the trail and putting others at risk," Miko says. If you do fall ill, shelter in place if you can. (Here's the CDC's breakdown of what works for which pathogens.) You'll need to layer on either chemical treatment or UV light treatment to kill the virus. And note: Most water filters are good at removing bacteria and common parasites but they don't cut it when it comes to norovirus. Water should be boiled for a minute at lower altitudes, or for 3 minutes above 6,500 feet. "Boiling.is the best way to kill everything you would typically come across," Miko says. Pay attention to where the water comes from, and treat it properly. ![]() Make sure to drink and cook with good, clean water. While any soap and water will work, she recommends biodegradable soaps in protected national parks and backcountry woods to reduce the impact on the environment. "The soap is a great detergent to remove the virus from your hands," she says. Miko says there are ways that hikers can cut their risks.Īlways wash your hands with soap and water after you have a bowel movement - and wash them again before you eat. ![]() And it takes just a few dozen viral particles to make a person very ill. The virus is small, and "extra sticky" on skin, Miko says. With norovirus, hand sanitizer and common water filters don't work. (According to the CDC, this hardy virus can stay alive on surfaces for "days or weeks.") Hand sanitizer doesn't cut and other advice for staying well They may not leave visible traces but some may leave germs, like norovirus, that can live on environmental surfaces for a long time, Miko says. These hubs, which seem so remote, see thousands of people - in varying levels of wellness - pass through in a season. They could also get it from eating food or drinking water that's been contaminated. Those hikers could touch their mouths, ingesting virus particles and becoming sick. They may spread the virus onto shared surfaces that other hikers touch, such as a latrine door handle, or a shared utensil at the campsite. Surface transmission is one easy way the disease could spread among hikers: Someone who is infected could contaminate their hands or clothing when they defecate or vomit. Investigators concluded that there was an outbreak of norovirus on the trail last summer that was spreading between hikers and that "exposure to contaminated surfaces within the cabin and. The results of the investigation were published this month in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. "This doesn't mean that we can see human feces on things," he adds, "but at some point in time, there was transmission of human fecal contamination onto every surface in the cabin we swabbed, and also everywhere in the latrine." While the water samples came back clean, "every single swab tested positive for fecal contamination," he says. They also swabbed the toilets, the door handles, the tabletops, the poker chips - anything people were touching. Hamlet and his team hiked out to the cabin and tested water from the stream. He heard from some two dozen hikers who experienced symptoms of gastrointestinal illness - and says social media reports indicate there were many more. When Hamlet heard about the outbreak, he made a survey for hikers to fill out. One of Henry's alert messages reached Arran Hamlet, a disease detective with the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service, based at the Washington State Department of Health. He also worked to warn other hikers about the threat. "My concern at the time was to make sure that the hikers on the trail didn't get any worse, and to make sure that the volunteers at the Washington Alpine Club didn't contract whatever it was they were bringing in," Henry says. Call in the disease detectivesĪfter a stream of sick Pacific Crest Trail hikers came through the Washington Alpine Club Lodge near Snoqualmie Pass last summer, a volunteer named Robert Henry closed the dorm-style lodge and emailed health authorities. It's often associated with enclosed, crowded settings like cruise ships, health care facilities and childcare centers.īut it also crops up in the wilderness - like in an outbreak among hikers like Quinn last year which was documented in a recent investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Norovirus is a highly contagious virus that can cause serious gastrointestinal distress for several days. "I had heard about the norovirus for years, but it was always in the context of 'Oh, there's a cruise ship in the Caribbean,' " he says, "You don't think about this being an issue when you're out on the Pacific Crest Trail."
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