CHULA VISTA
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The pathogen that has made at least 73 residents of the Veterans Home of California in Chula Vista sick since Dec. 21 was confirmed yesterday as norovirus, a gastrointestinal infection common in residential facilities.
Norovirus is transmitted through food and liquids, and by touching infected objects. It causes nausea, diarrhea and vomiting lasting one to two days and spreads rapidly through common living spaces and aboard cruise ships.
State health officials are scheduled to visit the veterans home next week “to determine if all appropriate actions are being taken to protect residents from the outbreak,” said Ken August, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Health in Sacramento.
Officials from the Community Care Licensing branch of the Department of Social Services also have made inquiries about the outbreak, said Jane Bergman, director of the veterans home.
Norovirus outbreaks are common, including those as large as the one at the Chula Vista facility, August said. About 120 such infections occur statewide at long-term care facilities during each norovirus season, which runs from fall to winter.
Norovirus is so common in such facilities that infection control and treatment for it are usually initiated as soon as its symptoms appear – even before the culprit is pinpointed.
“An agent other than norovirus has never been identified in a long-term care facility in California when the infection was initially suspected of being norovirus,” August said.
Several licensed residential facilities in San Diego County are suffering norovirus outbreaks, although none has as many patients as the veterans home, said Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county's public health officer.
“It's in our community,” she said.
The county's public health lab yesterday found norovirus in four out of seven specimens taken from residents at the veterans home who suffered gastrointestinal pain, Wooten said.
The veterans home has about 360 residents. Some of them stay in a skilled-nursing portion of the facility, while others live more independently.
Norovirus by itself is not a reportable disease, but state health codes require that gastrointestinal symptoms in licensed care settings be reported when they affect a cluster of two or more residents, Wooten said.
The first person at the veterans home came down with symptoms Dec. 21, but officials at the facility did not report that case and subsequent infections to state and federal officials until Dec. 27. They notified the county a day later.
Bergman said this is the first time in the home's seven-year history that norovirus has been identified, although an outbreak affecting up to 12 residents last year probably was caused by the same virus.
Until the current infection passes, the facility's staff is restricting visitors and intensively disinfecting common areas. Several times over the past two weeks, residents in the skilled-nursing section were isolated and group activities were canceled to minimize social interaction.
Normal activities will resume at the veterans home only after 72 hours have elapsed without a new case, Bergman said. The two most recent cases were diagnosed Wednesday evening.
Cheryl Clark: (619) 542-4573; cheryl.clark@uniontrib.com
