Looking up from the window of my sickbed,
the depth of a clear sky on a mild winter day
I was hit by norovirus. In the early hours of the 17th, I was suddenly struck by stomach pain and nausea, and the vomiting continued. After a doctor gave me an anti-nausea injection, I was finally able to take medicine.Apparently, its characteristic is that it comes on suddenly. For an entire day, I found it difficult even to sit up in bed. Now only the fever and headache remain. The incubation period is said to be 12–48 hours, and the symptoms are vomiting and diarrhea, along with a not very high fever. Children and older people, who have comparatively less stamina, tend to vomit, while adults often have diarrhea. I apparently lack stamina, as I vomited. Symptoms last for about 12–60 hours. There is also a similar virus called sapovirus. There is no effective antiviral drug, so treatment is symptomatic only. If dehydration is observed, an intravenous infusion is given. Its infectivity is extremely high, and it causes many infections every year, though its death rate is low. Deaths have been reported recently, but these are probably due to the special circumstances of hospital-acquired infections. The infection route is often food poisoning through shellfish such as raw oysters, but aerosol transmission from person to person also occurs. Infection through food handled by an infected person is also common.
“Noro” comes from the first three letters of Norfork, a place name in the United States, with an “o” meaning “of” added and “virus” appended. Similarly, “sapovirus” is formed by applying the same process to the first three letters of Sapporo.
While looking at the bright, clear sky from bed, I composed a tanka poem.
Looking up from the window of my sickbed,
the depth of a clear sky on a mild winter day
For now, I am eating a meal for the first time in about 43 hours, since the night before last. It is rice porridge, though…
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