'Rolling incidence of students throwing up': Norovirus outbreak forces Livonia school to cancel classes
LIVONIA (WWJ) - A Metro Detroit school was forced to cancel classes for the rest of the week after numerous students and staff fell ill with a highly contagious stomach. Norovirus was first reported in 1929, when it was singled out as the cause of a winter vomiting disease. In 1968, the virus was named Norwalk virus, and many of its symptoms and incubation times were described as part of investigations of a large outbreak. In the 1990s, scientists started to better understand the virus’s genes and proteins and classified the Norwalk virus as part of a larger group of viruses causing similar symptoms. The viruses in this group are now known as Noroviruses. Administrators at St. Michaels Catholic School off Plymouth Road in Livonia sent a message to families on Wednesday evening with the decision to cancel classes, afterschool activities until next Tuesday, Feb, 14, in an effort to stop a norovirus outbreak. Co-principal Kathy Nold reassured parents and students that the illness -