Vomit Can Carry Norovirus Disease Particles Through The Air, And Remain On

As expected, more virus particles were aerosolized when more MS2 had been added to the stomach, and both the vomit viscosity and the system pressure proved to be important variables. The result? New insight on how gastro viruses get to be so contagious.

Thanks to the “Vomiting Machine”, a device made by food researchers at North Carolina State University, we now have the, albeit gross and horrifying, answer.

The researchers used a vomiting device of their own creation to conduct the investigation, which focused specifically on norovirus, a common cause of stomach and intestinal distress. It’s part of a machine that simulates projectile vomit, and was built to provide the first evidence of how stomach bugs spread after someone throws up.

Norovirus is a huge public health problem, sickening as many as 21 million people a year in the U.S. But for all the gastric distress it causes, there are still some basic, unanswered questions about the virus.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal PLOS ONE. The device is instead used to study how pathogens, particularly human noroviruses, spread. In order to replicate the way a person with Norovirus vomits, they used a similar virus called MS2, but this disease does not make people sick and is easy to grow in a lab. It can pose a deadly threat, especially to the elderly, and its rapid transmission, especially in confined settings, such as nursing homes, hospitals, hotels, and cruise ships, makes it hard to get under control.

“In terms of overall percentage, not a lot of the virus is aerosolized”, says professor Francis de los Reyes II. “But in absolute terms, it is a lot compared to the amount of virus needed to cause infection”, he said in the news release.

The researchers also wanted to know, if the virus was aerosolized, how much of the virus went airborne.

“Taken together, they start to paint a pretty good picture of why norovirus is so atrociously infectious”, says Andrew Pavia, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah and a spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. That is, can an ill person’s vomiting launch tiny viral particles into the air, where they might waft into your mouth or onto surfaces that you would later touch?

Next, the team plans to assess how long those virus particles stay airborne and how far they might be able to travel.

“When one person vomits, the aerosolized virus particles can get into another person’s mouth and, if swallowed, can lead to infection,” Lee-Ann Jaykus a professor of food science at the university and the study’s co-author said in a statement.