Personal Injury Law

Holland, Michigan Campus Hopes Norovirus Too Shall Pass

By Marler Clark LLP

A reader tipped us off over the weekend to the growing Norovirus outbreak at Hope College in Eastern Michigan.   By this morning, Kym Reinstadler at The Grand Rapids Press was reporting more than 400 students and staff at Hope College were suffering from the virus, which the Brits so lovingly refer to as "the vomit disease."  Here's some of that report:

Hope College officials say since Friday, more than 400 staff and students have come down with symptoms of the nasty flu that has been knocking down people like bowling pins.  The small liberal arts college is now unlikely to open before Wednesday, according to the college...

"About half my friends have gotten sick and several didn't go to a clinic because it's a viral illness and doctors can't really do anything for you, anyway," said Katie Opatik-Duff, a freshman.

She created a Facebook page for the campus community called "Hope College: The Great Plague of 2008," because she wanted to find out how many people the brief but miserable illness laid low.

About one third of the 3,200 campus community had registered at the site Sunday, 14 percent of whom said they are sick or had been.

"It's a pretty good representative sample, and based on it my estimate is that 400 people got sick," said Duff, who returned home to Middleville on Friday to try to avoid getting sick. She lives in Dykstra Hall, which was hard-hit by the virus.

Based in Holland, MI, Hope College was founded in 1866.  For the complete Grand Rapids Press story, go here.

Full post as published by Norovirus Blog on November 10, 2008 (boomark / email).