Hospital Norovirus Outbreak Reporting System

Norovirus Outbreak Reporting Tool

Norovirus is a frequent cause of outbreaks of gastroenteritis in NHS hospitals. Reporting outbreaks through this online surveillance tool will provide:

	a timely quantification of the level of norovirus activity in NHS hospitals throughout the year
	improved understanding of the overall burden of disease and impact on hospital resources
	help in the detecting the emergence of new epidemic norovirus variants

Please see HNORS User Guidance which explains how to access the HNORS website and report an outbreak.

Please report all suspected and laboratory confirmed outbreaks (Definition of an outbreak) on a regular basis, weekly reporting is recommended.

Importance of reporting suspected and confirmed outbreaks

The information on outbreaks reported via the HNORS website are a key component of national norovirus surveillance and capture the impact of suspected or confirmed norovirus in NHS hospitals. Therefore, it is important that suspected and confirmed outbreaks of norovirus in hospitals are reported to UKHSA via HNORS each season.

Additionally NHS laboratories are encouraged to refer norovirus- positive samples from these outbreaks to the national reference laboratory (Enteric Virus Unit , UKHSA Colindale) on a regular basis to enable monitoring of the circulating strains and detection of new strains which could lead to a strain replacement event.

Surveillance reports and guidance

A summary of recent norovirus activity is regularly published in the Official Statistic National Norovirus and Rotavirus report. For historical information on norovirus activity please see the ‘Epidemiology and surveillance’ section of the UKHSA norovirus webpages. Please also see the Guidelines for the management of norovirus outbreaks in acute and community health and social care settings.