Winter bugs are out of control these days, aren't they?

[RogGestYeGerryMentlemen]

What on earth is going on? Primary schools local to me have had to close due to the d&v bug making the rounds. In one school, almost three quarters of students were absent. People seem to be catching it just by looking at each other, and it seems to be a particularly severe one, with people getting dehydrated as they are vomiting constantly and are unable to keep anything down.

I don't remember anything like this when I was a child. Yes you would get a bug doing the rounds, but you'd have a few years of catching everything when you started school, then it would ease off by age 8 or so.... I didn't catch a vomiting bug from I was 8 until I was about 15! Not to say I wasn't off sick for other reasons, but these vomiting bugs weren't the inevitable yearly event they are now.

My mum was a nurse for years, she reckons it's using antibac/disinfectant over soap and water - she says when she started her nursing training, they would obviously disinfectant certain things, but everything else would be given a good regular scrub down with soap and roasting hot water, and they had a massive barrel of rock salt which they'd scoop out and put in patient's baths, and she said wound infections weren't anything like now, and MRSA was unheard of.

I've actually changed this summer from antibac sprays to the more old fashioned cleaners like Stardrops and Vim, and bar soap instead of the dettol stuff, and touch wood we haven't had anything yet

No haven’t noticed. No issues here, my kids and all their friends as fine as ever

My kids haven’t had a vomiting big since they were less than 1. Odd day off here and there for a temperature or something but most years they have 100% attendance

Haven’t noticed that here, we’ve had the usual couple of kids get it but no major outbreaks.

I agree. It is because we’re using these antibacterial soaps - and particularly the kids aren’t getting enough germs when they’re young. Playing in dirt type stuff is necessary to colonise your gut bacteria.

It changes year on year. Some years loads, others less so.

But I certainly think cuts to cleaning services and underinvestment in schools hasn’t helped. My dcs school is falling apart with crappy toilets and crap toilet facilities so very difficult to wash hands. The cleaners are local students and I just don’t believe they do a decent job at all.

Haven’t noticed here either, 1 kid threw up and had a bit of D for a day, 1 had a temp / cold for 2 and that’s it so far. Eldest at 10 seems to be fine and none of the rest of us caught it.

Mind you, mine have horses and are generally coated in mud so maybe you have a point!

We've had a lot going round at work - proper norovirus type illnesses as well as winter colds. I'm on my second cold in as many months currently In our cases it's often people picking up bugs from their kids at nursery and bringing them into the office. Very difficult to avoid things if you use the tube to commute. Don't know if it's people feeling more pressure not to take sick days so spreading things, overcrowding on public transport....

The problem is the internet. When we were children our parents would know if it happened in our school or maybe a local one. Now we know if it happens in a 50 mile radius.

I'm in NI and 10 schools have had to close at the last count. I've never heard of a school having to close because of a bug before, let alone 10.

Over 100 children off at our primary school, just less than a quarter

I know of a lot of people who think the 48 hour rule is just a random suggestion pulled from mid air as well. We had a child last year sent in to play their part in the school play... I mentioned to the mum that child was looking peaky "oh she was throwing up at 3am but I loaded her up with calpol as she insisted on coming in..."

That's a good point about toilet facilities. I've heard of schools where parents have had to send in toilet roll and handsoap as the school have run out

I’ve had fewer d&v since stopping antibac washing up liquid. In fact, none.

I’m a bit of a minger, tho. My worktops sometimes go days without a wipe.

But like I say, we are hardly ever ill . Have never heard of major outbreak in our small country town. Lots of fruit and veg and hands always washed as soon as we get home, no shoes household too. Kids play out in all weathers.

My gran used to say, there’s Clean dirt, and there’s Dirty dirt . Agree.

OP are you in London or any other area that’s seen a huge increase in population? I think there’s a connection there.

They are starting to realise there is fascinating info to be gained about health from gut bacteria. Lots of people have poor quality gut bacteria which leads to low immunity. Query whether the modern diet is playing a part too?

I was going to ask if you were in NI as we’ve had the kids off this week so the school can have a ‘deep clean’, whatever their idea of that is. There were more kids off after it than there were at the start of the week. Part of the problem at our school is kids that are sent back in the day after going home vomiting, I don’t know what the school can realistically do about that but I’d be refusing to have them in the class.

A local primary to us was closed Thursday and Friday because of a bug, so they could do a deep clean. Never known that and dd is 15 so a lot of school.

I think a lot of parents are under so much pressure to get to work, the 48 hour rule doesn't get strictly followed. Also they will give calpol and send them in a bit peaky, when the reality is the dcs are already ill and passing stuff on.

Agree on the antibac soaps. I can't use them, they make the skin on my hand crack and bleed. Always just use normal bar soap and none of us have had a bug for years.

Were not squeaky clean here either. Strict rules around food hygiene, washing hands etc, but otherwise pretty slack

@Wafflehouse that's a real issue when people send their children back to school too soon. I'm a head teacher of a small school, and because we know the children and families so well we know most of the time if they've been v or d... if they're back less than 48 hours I take them out of class and send them home. It makes me unpopular with the parents but the 48 hour rule is there for a reason and I make sure however I can that it's stuck to. The real issue I have is when parents get wise to that and lie in the first place and say they've had something else wrong with them, so they think they can send them back early because we won't know. They forget that we actually talk to the children though so that rarely works for them...

I trained as a Nurse in the early 80's MRSA was about I remember we used to barrier nurse patient who had it. We scrubbed stuff down with soap and water and surgical stuff with alcohol.
I agree with too much anti bac stuff being about, good hand washing with soap and water and washing often, takes care of just about all the tummy bugs going around.
Years back kids were made to line up and wash hands with soap and water before entering the dining room at school, that prevented a lot of the spreading of infections. Now they just send them all in for food.

We closed last year for a deep clean, some of our local schools closed this year but luckily we've avoided it so far

Hate the deep clean as anything that can't be sanitised is thrown away -so lots of hand made and sensory resources

We do send pupils home if they are back in before 48hrs -we get an awful lot of parents telling us 'it's not a bug, it's something they ate'

Frustrating

Not a child and I'm on my third cold in a row this month. Absolutely fed up of being ill. I go back into the office once I'm better but because some other fucker is in there coughing his head off my lowered immune system doesn't stand a chance

LauraBradshaw exactly which controls have gone? When were people quarantined?

And how is and mouth disease linked to AIDS (one affects animals and one affects humans)?