Residents from a local long-term care facility with ongoing norovirus are admitted with symptoms. Which precautions should those residents with symptoms, regardless of confirmative testing, be placed on?

• A. Airborne
• B. Contact
• C. Droplet
• D. Standard

Answer: (B)

The main idea is that the type of isolation is driven by how the infection spreads. Norovirus mainly transmits through contact with an infected person or contaminated surfaces, and via the fecal-oral route. Because of this, placing symptomatic residents on contact precautions best prevents spread. This means staff should wear gloves and gowns when entering the room, use dedicated or cleaned equipment for the patient, and perform careful hand hygiene. In norovirus cases, soap and water handwashing is preferred over alcohol-based sanitizers because the virus is a non-enveloped organism and can be more resistant to some sanitizers. The room should also be cleaned with disinfectants effective against norovirus and sources of contamination should be managed promptly. Airborne and droplet precautions are not typically needed for norovirus, since its transmission is not primarily through the respiratory route, and standard precautions alone do not address the risk of transmission via contaminated surfaces and hands.