Day 37 – 9/27/05, Norovirus Only Large Outbreak among Katrina Evacuees, CDC Says

ATLANTA (CNN) -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that there was only one outbreak of disease among evacuees or rescue workers that required unusual mobilization of public health resources during the first three weeks after Hurricane Katrina.

That disease was norovirus, a highly contagious but usually self-limiting outbreak of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea common among cruise ship passengers that was reported among evacuees in Texas, the CDC said in a summary of post-Katrina illness. Symptoms can also include low-grade fever, chills, headache, muscle aches and a general sense of tiredness.

With more than 200,000 evacuees in about 750 evacuation centers in at least 18 states, the opportunity for spread of disease was significant, given that many of the evacuees were living in close quarters with limited access to proper hygiene. But the CDC found only a small number of other illnesses among those forced to flee the Aug. 29 hurricane.

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