Well, we’re fast approaching ‘kick-off’ in the 2010-11 Norovirus season. After a bumper year in the previous year what will the forthcoming winter bring? I wonder if anything will come of Ben Lopman’s excellent paper in the Journal of Hospital Infection earlier this year? Will we be using the intelligence that this resource could provide that may give us an inkling of what is to come, something to pick a significant sound from the background noise? Sadly I suspect not. NHS Direct is a valuable tool that should be used as an early warning system, however will we again see a winter where wards and whole hospitals are closed? We must do more to take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to us.
