"Hundreds of thousands of people have been struck down by a virulent stomach infection which has reached record levels, sweeping through hotels, hospitals, care homes and even passenger ships. Health officials in Scotland have recorded a 65% increase in cases of the highly-infectious norovirus, the so-called winter vomiting virus, during the past 12 months. The medical profession has been unable to explain the surge in sickness in the latest figures, although a new strain of the bug could be to blame."
Unfortunately (or fortunately), as the article reveals, the number of recorded cases is not quite as high as suggested:
"Last month, Health Protection Scotland, which conducts infection surveillance for the country, reported there had been 1491 confirmed cases of norovirus in the first 48 weeks of 2005 compared with 906 for the same period in 2004."
In order to justify its opening remarks, The Herald offers the following somewhat improbable (and of course unverifiable) claim:
"However, experts said hundreds of people will have been struck down by the virus for every case logged, as many people who contract the bug do not seek medical advice. "
"A virulent stomach infection" and the overwhelming majority of sufferers do not seek medical advice? Not very likely, is it?
2 comments:
you've got an interesting blog here. i emjoyed reading through it.
Many thanks and a happy new year
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