Paramedics dressed in protective attire walk in front of the ship, the Bellriva, in Wiesbaden December 8, 2012. The Bellriva has been quarantined after at least 30 passengers were found to be suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting. Authorities believed it is caused by the Norovirus, a virus that is spread from person-to-person and causes flu-like symptoms.

LONDON | Mon Dec 31, 2012 8:53am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Poor Larry isn't looking too good. He's pale and clammy and he's been projectile vomiting over and over again while his carers just stand by and watch.

Yet their lack of concern for Larry is made up for by their intense interest in how far splashes of his vomit can fly, and how effectively they evade attempts to clean them up.

Larry is a "humanoid simulated vomiting system" designed to help scientists analyze contagion. And like millions around the world right now, he's struggling with norovirus - a disease one British expert describes as "the Ferrari of the virus world".

"Norovirus is one of the most infectious viruses of man," said Ian Goodfellow, a professor of virology at the department of pathology at Britain's University of Cambridge, who has been studying noroviruses for 10 years.

"It takes fewer than 20 virus particles to infect someone. So each droplet of vomit or gram of feces from an infected person can contain enough virus to infect more than 100,000 people."

Norovirus is hitting hard this year - and earlier too.

In Britain so far this season, more than a million people are thought to have suffered the violent vomiting and diarrhea it can bring. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said this high rate of infection relatively early in the winter mirrors trends seen in Japan and Europe.

"In Australia the norovirus season also peaks during the winter, but this season it has gone on longer than usual and they are seeing cases into their summer," it said in a statement.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say norovirus causes 21 million illnesses annually. Of those who get the virus, some 70,000 require hospitalization and around 800 die each year.

PROFUSE AND PROJECTILE

Norovirus dates back more than 40 years and takes its name from the U.S. city of Norwalk, Ohio, where there was an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis in school children in November 1968.

Symptoms include a sudden onset of vomiting, which can be projectile, and diarrhea, which may be profuse and watery. Some victims also suffer fevers, headaches and stomach cramps.

John Harris, an expert on the virus at Britain's HPA, puts it simply: "Norovirus is very contagious and very unpleasant."

What makes this such a formidable enemy is its ability to evade death from cleaning and to survive long periods outside a human host. Scientists have found norovirus can remain alive and well for 12 hours on hard surfaces and up to 12 days on contaminated fabrics such as carpets and upholstery. In still water, it can survive for months, maybe even years.

At the Health and Safety Laboratory in Derbyshire, northern England, where researcher Catherine Makison developed the humanoid simulated vomiting system and nicknamed him "Vomiting Larry", scientists analyzing his reach found that small droplets of sick can spread over three meters.

"The dramatic nature of the vomiting episodes produces a lot of aerosolized vomit, much of which is invisible to the naked eye," Goodfellow told Reuters.

Larry's projections were easy to spot because he had been primed with a "vomitus substitute", scientists explain, which included a fluorescent marker to help distinguish even small splashes - but they would not be at all easily visible under standard white hospital lighting.

Add the fact that norovirus is particularly resistant to normal household disinfectants and even alcohol hand gels, and it's little wonder the sickness wreaks such havoc in hospitals, schools, nursing homes, cruise ships and hotels.

During the two weeks up to December 23, there were 70 hospital outbreaks of norovirus reported in Britain, and last week a cruise ship that sails between New York and Britain's Southampton docked in the Caribbean with about 200 people on board suffering suspected norovirus.

MOVING TARGET

The good news, for some, is that not everyone appears to be equally susceptible to norovirus infection. According to Goodfellow, around 20 percent of Europeans have a mutation in a gene called FUT2 that makes them resistant.

For the rest the only likely good news will have to wait for the results of trials of a potential norovirus vaccine developed by U.S. drugmaker LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals Inc, or from one of several research teams around the world working on possible new antiviral drugs to treat the infection.

Early tests in 2011 indicated that around half of people vaccinated with the experimental shot, now owned by Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co, were protected from symptomatic norovirus infection.

The bad news, virologists say, is that the virus changes constantly, making it a moving target for drug developers. There is also evidence that humans' immune response to infection is short-lived, so people can become re-infected by the same virus within just a year or two.

"There are many strains, and the virus changes very rapidly - it undergoes something virologists call genetic drift," Harris said in a telephone interview. "When it makes copies of itself, it makes mistakes in those copies - so each time you encounter the virus you may be encountering a slightly different one."

This means that even if a vaccine were to be fully developed - still a big 'if' - it would probably need to be tweaked and repeated in a slightly different formula each year to prevent people getting sick.

Until any effective drugs or vaccines are developed, experts reckon that like the common cold, norovirus will be an unwelcome guest for many winters to come. Their advice is to stay away from anyone with the virus, and use soap and water liberally.

"One of the reasons norovirus spreads so fast is that the majority of people don't wash their hands for long enough," said Goodfellow. "We'd suggest people count to 15 while washing their hands and ensure their hands are dried completely."

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Will Waterman)

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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson testifies at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 22, 2011.

WASHINGTON | Mon Dec 31, 2012 10:34am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Regardless of who takes the reins, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will likely face continued legal battles in President Barack Obama's second term as it tries to finalize pollution rules for power plants, analysts said.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who spearheaded the Obama administration's regulation of carbon emissions, said on Thursday she will step down after almost four years.

Her tenure was marked by opposition from industry groups and Republican lawmakers to the EPA's first-ever crackdown on carbon emissions, as well as other anti-pollution measures.

Analysts said whoever succeeds Jackson will probably face a spate of lawsuits to challenge rules that the EPA will finalize governing power plants, industrial sources and oil and gas production.

"This is shaping up to be four years of litigation," said Christopher Guith, vice president for policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Energy Institute.

Given the partisan divide, Guith said, legislators would struggle to draft laws that could serve as alternatives to the EPA's pending suite of carbon and air regulation.

"As we look to an even more divided Congress, the action will be in the federal courts," he said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, which hears most challenges to federal environmental rules, is likely to be busy as industry groups and states bring their cases against the EPA's rules after they are finalized.

The court sided with the agency in most of the recent challenges, most notably upholding its decision to use the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

David Doniger, policy director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Climate and Clean Air Program, said this could bolster the EPA as it tackles rules that may be more controversial than those rolled out under Jackson.

"The agency has a very good batting record on the clean air side. Carbon and climate (regulations) have come through completely unscathed," he said.

CARETAKER ADMINISTRATOR?

After the EPA was a political lightning rod during the first Obama administration, the president is likely to seek out a safe, possibly internal choice as Jackson's successor, or to avoid the confirmation process altogether.

"There are just so many arrows pointed at this agency," said Susan Tierney, managing principal and energy and environment specialist at Boston-based Analysis Group

Bob Perciasepe, deputy EPA administrator, will take over on an interim basis and could continue in that role indefinitely.

He previously worked at the EPA during the Clinton administration, specializing in water and air quality. Before rejoining the agency, Perciasepe was a top official at the National Audubon Society, a major conservation group.

Tierney said she expects the EPA to stay the course on its current agenda, especially as the agency faces some court-ordered deadlines to finalize rules, such as for coal ash, industrial waste from coal-fired plants and ozone standards.

PRIORITY ON CLIMATE CHANGE?

Some environmentalists have criticized Obama for being too timid on climate issues during his first term. But in his acceptance speech on election night in November the president gave a nod to climate change, raising hopes for more activism.

The White House may lean on the EPA to tackle one of the largest sources of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the current fleet of power plants, said Jeremy Symons, senior vice president at the National Wildlife Federation.

"The president has made clear that climate change is one of his top three priorities for the second term, so that means EPA needs to do its job," Symons said.

This, he said, means the agency needs to finalize the rules for new power plants and the standards for limiting carbon emissions from existing power plants.

The NRDC's Doniger said once the EPA meets an April 2013 legal deadline to finalize the greenhouse gas rules for new power plants, it will then have to address standards for existing plants.

The EPA has to start promptly in the beginning of the second term, said Doniger, because the rulemaking process is "a multistep process that will take time."

The controversial task will almost certainly trigger lawsuits because the rules will target a large number of domestic power plants and could jeopardize electric reliability.

"It's high stakes litigation when you are talking about bringing 40 percent of generation under regulations. That's disastrous," the Chamber's Guith said.

Guith said that while the EPA does have the authority to regulate carbon dioxide using the Clean Air Act, its rules are too difficult for industry - forcing the litigation.

"This EPA has been so aggressive in pushing the envelope by way of the compliance timeline that it has made itself more vulnerable to lawsuits," he said.

The EPA may also face legal challenges from environmental groups and certain states. The NRDC, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Sierra Club joined a group of nine states led by New York that threatened to sue the EPA last year to propose air pollution standards for oil and gas drilling.

They said that the drilling, transportation and distribution resulted in a significant release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is not regulated by federal rules.

Doniger said the group is trying to negotiate a timeline with the EPA to set a rule but could sue the agency if it doesn't agree a schedule by February.

(Additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Gary Hill)

(This story was corrected to fix the name of environmental group to Natural Resources Defense Council from National Resources Defense Council in the tenth paragraph)

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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson testifies at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 22, 2011.

WASHINGTON | Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:11am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Regardless of who takes the reins, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will likely face continued legal battles in President Barack Obama's second term as it tries to finalize pollution rules for power plants, analysts said.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who spearheaded the Obama administration's regulation of carbon emissions, said on Thursday she will step down after almost four years.

Her tenure was marked by opposition from industry groups and Republican lawmakers to the EPA's first-ever crackdown on carbon emissions, as well as other anti-pollution measures.

Analysts said whoever succeeds Jackson will probably face a spate of lawsuits to challenge rules that the EPA will finalize governing power plants, industrial sources and oil and gas production.

"This is shaping up to be four years of litigation," said Christopher Guith, vice president for policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Energy Institute.

Given the partisan divide, Guith said, legislators would struggle to draft laws that could serve as alternatives to the EPA's pending suite of carbon and air regulation.

"As we look to an even more divided Congress, the action will be in the federal courts," he said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, which hears most challenges to federal environmental rules, is likely to be busy as industry groups and states bring their cases against the EPA's rules after they are finalized.

The court sided with the agency in most of the recent challenges, most notably upholding its decision to use the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

David Doniger, policy director of the National Resources Defense Council's Climate and Clean Air Program, said this could bolster the EPA as it tackles rules that may be more controversial than those rolled out under Jackson.

"The agency has a very good batting record on the clean air side. Carbon and climate (regulations) have come through completely unscathed," he said.

CARETAKER ADMINISTRATOR?

After the EPA was a political lightning rod during the first Obama administration, the president is likely to seek out a safe, possibly internal choice as Jackson's successor, or to avoid the confirmation process altogether.

"There are just so many arrows pointed at this agency," said Susan Tierney, managing principal and energy and environment specialist at Boston-based Analysis Group

Bob Perciasepe, deputy EPA administrator, will take over on an interim basis and could continue in that role indefinitely.

He previously worked at the EPA during the Clinton administration, specializing in water and air quality. Before rejoining the agency, Perciasepe was a top official at the National Audubon Society, a major conservation group.

Tierney said she expects the EPA to stay the course on its current agenda, especially as the agency faces some court-ordered deadlines to finalize rules, such as for coal ash, industrial waste from coal-fired plants and ozone standards.

PRIORITY ON CLIMATE CHANGE?

Some environmentalists have criticized Obama for being too timid on climate issues during his first term. But in his acceptance speech on election night in November the president gave a nod to climate change, raising hopes for more activism.

The White House may lean on the EPA to tackle one of the largest sources of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the current fleet of power plants, said Jeremy Symons, senior vice president at the National Wildlife Federation.

"The president has made clear that climate change is one of his top three priorities for the second term, so that means EPA needs to do its job," Symons said.

This, he said, means the agency needs to finalize the rules for new power plants and the standards for limiting carbon emissions from existing power plants.

The NRDC's Doniger said once the EPA meets an April 2013 legal deadline to finalize the greenhouse gas rules for new power plants, it will then have to address standards for existing plants.

The EPA has to start promptly in the beginning of the second term, said Doniger, because the rulemaking process is "a multistep process that will take time."

The controversial task will almost certainly trigger lawsuits because the rules will target a large number of domestic power plants and could jeopardize electric reliability.

"It's high stakes litigation when you are talking about bringing 40 percent of generation under regulations. That's disastrous," the Chamber's Guith said.

Guith said that while the EPA does have the authority to regulate carbon dioxide using the Clean Air Act, its rules are too difficult for industry - forcing the litigation.

"This EPA has been so aggressive in pushing the envelope by way of the compliance timeline that it has made itself more vulnerable to lawsuits," he said.

The EPA may also face legal challenges from environmental groups and certain states. The NRDC, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Sierra Club joined a group of nine states led by New York that threatened to sue the EPA last year to propose air pollution standards for oil and gas drilling.

They said that the drilling, transportation and distribution resulted in a significant release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is not regulated by federal rules.

Doniger said the group is trying to negotiate a timeline with the EPA to set a rule but could sue the agency if it doesn't agree a schedule by February.

(Additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Gary Hill)

View the original article here