The Norwalk viruses are one of the dangerous contagious viruses of gastrointestinal track. The signs and symptoms of these viruses appear in 24 to 48 hours after the virus attack. Abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, and headache are the symptoms of the viral presence in the human body. One of the interesting facts about this virus is its multiplication as it cannot multiply outside the human body.
In United States of America, the outbreak of Norwalk virus can occur in hotels by any contaminated vehicle, which could be food or water (Atmar, et al., 2011). This stage could be considered as the initial outbreak of Norwalk virus. At a later stage, this outbreak of virus spreads in hotels from person to person.
The contact of staff and guests can be dangerous because it helps the virus to be spread rapidly (Duggan, Watkins, & Allan, 2008). Moreover, the hospitality industry throughout the world always remains conscious about the providence of services to guests, and takes measures to provide services that can deliver hundred percent surety of safer healthcare environment to the guests.
Therefore, hotel operators globally are required to ensure the safety measures in hotels; otherwise there could be severe consequences because guests have right to impose certain liabilities on hotel operators. The hotel operators need to sure about the affectivity of cleaning procedures of vomiting and any fecal incidents.
Additionally, the most common areas of the hotels need to be treated with special concentration, in which public areas and common rooms are required to be cleaned with special protocols of cleaning. The staff areas of the hotels are also required to be given special emphasizes in order protect the environment from contagious viruses like Norwalk.
In order to prevent the hotel environment from Norwalk, garbage bags, water, disposable gloves, paper towels, and masking tapes are kept in spill cleanup kit (Pizam, 2012). A hotel operator needs to be aware about the healthcare environment of the bar and lounge of a hotel as the areas are usually jam packed with people. Hygienic measures for the guests are also required to be done in the areas of spa and salon and fitness centers.
Within the premises of hotel, every area needs to be dealt with special cleaning protocol because it could be anything that may cause the viral infection. Hotel operators are also required to be concerned about the serving utensils and cleaning of the pools. Another duty of the hotel operator is to monitor the health conditions of its staff and guests and needs to gather information about the incidents of vomiting and diarrhea within the premises of the hotel (Enz, 2009).
There are certain laws and regulations designed for the hospitality business organizations, which are strictly followed and implemented by the hotel operator to provide a healthy environment to the guests. If the regulations are not followed by the hotel operators, particular penalties are imposed by the governments.
In any critical situation, where there is any critical health issue rises, hotel operator is investigated by the concerned bodies whether protection and cleaning measures are reliable and implemented or not (Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, Bancroft-Whitney Company, West Group, 2012).
Therefore, it has been analyzed that hotel operator is the one who holds special responsibilities in managing an ideal and protected environment for the guests. If the highlighted measures are strictly implemented in a hotel, contagious viruses like Norwalk or Norovirus cannot harm the hospitality environment of a hotel.
Reference List
Atmar, R. L., Bernstein, D. I., Harro, C. D., Al-Ibrahim, M. M., Chen, W. H., Ferreira, J., & Estes, M. K. (2011). Norovirus Vaccine against Experimental Human Norwalk Virus Illness. The New England Journal of Medicine, 365, 2178-2187.
Duggan, C., Watkins, J. B., & Allan, W. W. (2008). Nutrition in Pediatrics: Basic Science, Clinical Applications. New York: PMPH-USA.
Enz, C. A. (2009). Hospitality Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.
Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, Bancroft-Whitney Company, West Group. (2012). American Jurisprudence, 2d. Washington: Lawyers Co-operative Pub. Co.
Pizam, A. (2012). International Encyclopedia of Hospitality Management. Burlington: Routledge.