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Asked by les science est tres cool to Liz on 16 Jun 2017.
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Liz Buckingham-Jeffery answered on 16 Jun 2017:
The data I work with is the number of people that have been to the doctors and had a test which shows they have norovirus (you have to give a poo sample which gets sent to the lab and analysed).
However, because norovirus is so common, and because most people just get better by themselves, not everyone goes to the doctors and only a few people get this test to show they have norovirus. I’m trying to use mathematical models with this data, and other different new data, to get a better guess of how many people get norovirus.
This will help in lots of ways, but one example is that other scientists are trying to create a norovirus vaccine right now. If we don’t know how many people are getting ill then we don’t know if it is worth using all this time and money to develop and give out the vaccine!
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Comments
christldonnelly commented on :
I’m pretty sure that my family and I all had norovirus. I’d certainly pay for a vaccine if it were available!