Health professionals are noting a surge in a norovirus called “winter vomiting disease,” which spreads through contaminated food and water.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) monitors wastewater surveillance testing, which has indicated that the virus is spreading earlier and faster than usual.
Reported cases, particularly in Louisiana, Michigan and Indiana, have been surging since October. California, Alabama, Texas and Florida have also been flagged for pockets of outbreaks.
Each year, there are about 2,500 reported norovirus outbreaks in the U.S., according to the CDC.
A variant of norovirus known as GII.17 has begun to raise concerns for health professionals after cases spiked. In 2024, the GII.17 mutation was responsible for about 75 percent of outbreaks, per the health agency.
Prior to that, the GII.4 strain dominated norovirus outbreaks for more than three decades.
“When new strains emerge, people are exposed to a strain that they have not previously been exposed to, and hence are more likely to get infected,” Lee-Ann Jaykus, a professor in the department of food, bioprocessing and nutrition sciences at North Carolina State University, told Newsweek.
The United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela amid a monthslong buildup of military forces surrounding the country, President Trump confirmed on Dec. 10.
On July 20, around ten masked men raided the Palestinian hamlet of Ibsiq in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank. They arrived in a two car convoy, dressed in Israeli military-issue fatigues, and carried assault rifles fitted with green laser pointers.
In one of the last remaining cities under Ukrainian control in the country's eastern Donetsk region, once a powerhouse of industry, life gets more difficult — and dangerous — as Russian forces inch closer.
At least one student was killed and another was critically wounded in a shooting at a residence hall at Kentucky State University on Tuesday, and a suspect who is not a student at the school was in custody, officials said.
Organizers challenging Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map say they turned in enough signatures on Tuesday to block the map from going into effect and to force a referendum on the map next year.
Democrats continued their run of successes in special elections by flipping a state House seat in Georgia Tuesday, according to a projection from the CNN Decision Desk.
