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Suspected Norovirus Outbreak Sickens 100 Students At University Of Michigan

ANN ARBOR (WWJ) - Officials at the University of Michigan are investigating a suspected Norovirus outbreak at two dorms on campus.

Spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said students at South and West Quad began getting sick on Monday.

"And it's continued to grow to about a hundred students (who) have sought some sort of help for the illness — largely vomiting and diarrhea," he told WWJ's Sandra McNeill, early Wednesday evening. "While we don't have official lab-confirmed results, every indication is that it's a norovirus."

Fitzgerald said all of the ill students ate at the South Quad cafeteria.

Students who are sick are being advised to isolate themselves in their rooms, where they will be served meals if requested, and additional precautions are being taken to help stem further spread of the illness.

"We've instituted some additional cleaning protocols in residence halls — all of our residence halls and all of our dining facilities — out of an abundance of caution, based on what we believe to be this norovirus," Fitzgerald said. "...Our physicians tell us that norovirus is highly contagious and easily spread."

Norovirus, which causes uncomfortable gastrointestinal symptoms, generally lasts about three days.

Fitzgerald says there was a similar outbreak in 2002, but it was confined to one dorm.

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