A school in Southern California canceled all its classes for the meantime to prevent the spread of a norovirus infection believed to have been contracted by the students during a camp. Around 190 students along with some parents and teachers from the John Adams Middle School were suspected to have contracted a contagious gastrointestinal virus during a five-day camp at the Yosemite National Park.

According to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, the illness has spread to other students at John Adams who were not part of the trip as well as siblings who go to other schools in the district. Because of that the district had to cancel classes. They also coordinated with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on how to contain the illness.

The federal Center for Disease Controls said that the norovirus is highly contagious and everyone, even adults, is susceptible to the disease. However, very young children and older people can be hit the hardest. Moreover, the illness can become recurrent as there are many types of norovirus.The most common symptoms of the illness is vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, and fever.

The disease can be contracted by touching a contaminated surface, ingesting contaminated food and water, or transmitted by an infected person. The CDC also added that the months when the outbreaks usually happen are November to April.

The Santa Monica Council, on the other hand, has kept advising parents to report to the school if they suspect their kids have it. Moreover, they advise to keep kids in the house if the child has shown symptoms of the illness.

John Adams Middle School, on the other hand, will be closed until this weekend for cleaning. Other schools which are suspected to have been infected will also cleaned as well. Classes will resume normally on Monday.

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