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What is Norovirus?


Klaran UVC LEDs

By Klaran

Norovirus is an example of a highly contagious, small, non-enveloped virus transmitted through food, water and touching contaminated surfaces. In the U.S., it is the leading cause of illness and outbreaks from contaminated food. Norovirus can spread quickly in closed places like daycare centers, nursing homes, schools and cruise ships.

A person with norovirus infection can shed billions of norovirus particles but it only takes as few as 18 viral particles to infect another person. During outbreaks, norovirus can spread in several different ways. For example, a person who is infected by eating contaminated food in a restaurant can spread the virus to household members through direct contact or indirectly by touching objects and surfaces.

The pathogenicity of norovirus makes testing and analysis of disinfection performance difficult and challenging. Instead, scientists rely on surrogate bacteriophages such as MS2 and Qβ.

This chart shows water disinfection performance by a single Klaran WD Series UVC LED against Bacteriophage MS2 in a consumer appliance flowing water application. The water flow rate through the UVC LED reactor was held at a constant 0.4 liters per minute and the forward drive current adjusted to determine the impact on microbial log reduction.