By Dr Chun Tang — MBChB (Manchester), MRCGP, MBA · Practising NHS & Private GP · Founder, Little Ox

Dr Tang in the Press: Norovirus Is Surging — Symptoms, Prevention and Gut Resilience

In October 2024, with over 12,000 norovirus hospitalisations recorded, I was quoted in Surrey Live and several regional publications on the norovirus surge and what people needed to know. Here's the full picture — including what the press pieces didn't have room for.

What I Said in the Press

Norovirus is a highly contagious virus causing gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — with rapid onset of nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. It spreads through contaminated food, water and surfaces, and through direct contact with an infected person.

The most important practical point I made: alcohol hand sanitiser does not kill norovirus. Norovirus is non-enveloped, meaning it lacks the lipid membrane that makes many viruses vulnerable to alcohol. Thorough handwashing with soap and water is the only reliable physical prevention.

Other key advice: stay home for a full 48 hours after symptoms resolve (not just when you start feeling better — the virus continues to shed); disinfect surfaces with bleach-based products; wash any contaminated laundry on a hot cycle.

The groups most at risk of serious complications are young children under five, adults over 65, and anyone with a weakened immune system — for whom dehydration can progress to hospitalisation rapidly. If you're in these groups and struggling to keep fluids down, seek medical advice early.

Why Some People Are Hit Much Harder Than Others

The question I find more interesting clinically is not "how do I avoid norovirus" but "why does the same virus cause a mild 24-hour inconvenience for some people and put others in hospital?" The answer is largely gut microbiome health and immune status.

Your gut microbiome produces antimicrobial compounds, competes with pathogens for attachment sites on intestinal walls, and trains your mucosal immune system. People with diverse, healthy microbiomes mount faster and more effective intestinal immune responses. People with depleted microbiomes — which correlates with age, antibiotic use, processed food diets and chronic stress — are more vulnerable to severe gastrointestinal infections and slower to recover.

This is exactly why I designed our Bio Cultures Complex with 75 billion CFU across 25 strains rather than the single-strain products that dominate the market. Microbiome diversity — not just raw CFU count — is what determines gut resilience.

Supporting gut microbiome diversity year-round, rather than reactively after you get ill, is the most rational approach to reducing your susceptibility to gastrointestinal infections like norovirus. Pair it with NMN Pure for overall immune cell function support, and you're addressing gut resilience from both the microbiome and the cellular immunity angles simultaneously.

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