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Outbreak of Potentially Fatal Diarrhea, Brought on by Rotavirus, Spreading Across America
Rotavirus outbreak spreads across America with high concentrations detected in California, Texas and the Northeast. Find out which cities are most at risk.
An outbreak of potentially fatal diarrhea is spreading across America, according to public health officials. The outbreak is brought on by the highly contagious rotavirus, which kills hundreds of thousands of children every year, reports say.
According to the latest data, shared by The U.S. Sun, rising levels of the rotavirus have been detected in Northern California, Texas and across parts of the Northeast — with 90 sites around the country logging “high concentrations” of the illness in wastewater samples.
The insidious bug causes severe watery diarrhea, vomiting and stomach cramps. Unlike strains of its cousin, the norovirus, it primarily attacks children five years of age and younger.
Doctors tell Globe rotavirus spreads orally from microscopic fecal matter. Daycares, hospitals and senior facilities are particularly at risk, experts say, although the danger can be mitigated by washing hands and disinfecting surfaces.
Dangerous levels of the virus are now circulating in several California cities, including Marin, Redwood City, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Sacramento, Davis, San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Fremont, Vallejo and Novato, according to WastewaterSCAN data, via The Sacramento Bee.
High levels have also been detected in the Texas cities of Amarillo, The Woodlands, Dallas-Fort Worth, Wichita Falls and Gainesville, per The Houston Chronicle as well as across areas of New Jersey and Connecticut.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports rotavirus was once incredibly deadly, with more than half a million children around the world dying from the illness every year.
But that number has fallen dramatically, sources say, since the institution of a vaccine during the mid-2000s, with almost half a billion children worldwide receiving inoculation since 2004.
One study found the lives of 140,000 kids were saved by the rotavirus vaccine from 2006 to 2019. Despite that, the rotavirus vaccine was among six childhood inoculations the CDC removed from its list of mandated shots on Jan. 5, according to NPR.
According to Reuters, a federal judge has temporarily blocked that change after a lawsuit was filed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups.
The CDC notes rotavirus vaccination rates for infants under 24 months was already falling before January as skepticism about vaccines rose following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Stuart Fischer, the author of The Little Book of Big Medical Emergencies, tells Globe “it’s unforgivable” for the CDC to remove the rotavirus vaccine from its schedule of mandated inoculations when it’s proven so effective.
“We had this virus under control,” says Dr. Fischer, “and now an untold number of kids will find themselves in dangerous waters and at risk of incapacitation, hospitalization or worse.”
