Officials received calls about many traveler reporting sick Thursday evening at Reagan National Airport. The travelers had similar symptoms, including nausea. About 65 out of 350 people who attended the conference became ill but returned home safely.
A private company has already started investigating the source of virus infection. The outbreak of noroviruses is generally responsible for sickening hundreds of passengers on cruise ships recently.
Norovirus causes approximately 90 percent of epidemic non-bacterial outbreaks of gastroenteritis around the world, and is responsible for 50 percent of all food borne outbreaks of gastroenteritis in the United States.
Norovirus affects people of all ages. The viruses are transmitted by faecally contaminated food or water and by person-to-person.
After infection, immunity to norovirus is neither complete nor long-lasting. There is an inherited predisposition to infection and people whose blood type can be detected in their saliva are more often infected.
