BILLINGS (AP)
Health officials confirmed the presence of norovirus in three more Yellowstone County nursing homes and tests results are pending at another site. If that is confirmed, it will bring to six the number of nursing homes affected by the sickness, said Dr. Doug Moore, chief of public health for the Yellowstone City-County Health Department. Norovirus has been identified at Grand Park Vintage Suites, Butterfly Homes, Billings Health and Rehabilitation Center and St. John’s Lutheran Ministries in Billings and Evergreen Health and Rehabilitation Center in Laurel. Health investigators suspect the virus is also present at Evergreen Health and Rehabilitation Center in Lockwood. Other communities in Montana and the Northwest have been reporting the sickness, also called Norwalk virus, in higher than usual numbers, said Dr. Todd Damrow, an epidemiologist for the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. “Obviously, our surveillance is better and testing is better, but this is still abnormal,” Moore said. “We have to spend more time figuring out what’s going on.”
