Your Blood Type May Influence Your Vulnerability to Norovirus, the Winter Vomiting Virus

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

In the last few months, schools all over the country have closed because of outbreaks of norovirus. Also known as stomach flu, norovirus infections cause watery diarrhea, low-grade fever and, most alarming of all, projectile vomiting, which is an extremely effective way of spreading the virus.

Norovirus is very infectious and spreads rapidly through a confined population, such as at a school or on a cruise ship. Although most sufferers recover in 24 to 48 hours, norovirus is a leading cause of childhood illness and, in developing countries, results in about 50,000 child deaths each year.

Interestingly, not everyone is equally vulnerable to the virus, and whether you get sick or not may depend on your blood type.

[...] The naked capsid coat is one factor that makes norovirus so difficult to control. Viruses with membrane coatings are susceptible to alcohol and detergents, but not so norovirus. Norovirus can survive temperatures from freezing to 145 degrees Fahrenheit (about the maximum water temperature in a home dishwasher), soap and mild solutions of bleach. Norovirus can persist on human hands for hours and on solid surfaces and food for days and is also resistant to alcohol-based hand sanitizers.

To make things worse, only a tiny dose of the virus - as few as 10 viral particles - is needed to cause disease. Given that an infected person can excrete many billions of viral particles, it's very difficult to prevent the virus from spreading.

[...] If a group of people is exposed to a strain of norovirus, who gets sick will depend on each person's blood type. But, if the same group of people is exposed to a different strain of norovirus, different people may be resistant or susceptible. In general, those who do not make the H1-antigen and people with B blood type will tend to be resistant, whereas people with A, AB, or O blood types will tend [to] get sick, but the pattern will depend on the specific strain of norovirus.

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