RUMFORD — Last week was a rough one for staff and residents at Rumford Community Home when an outbreak of norovirus hit particularly hard, officials said Wednesday afternoon.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention states on its website that noroviruses are a group that cause the “stomach flu” or gastroenteritis in people. Most people get better within a day or two.

“It’s just nausea, vomiting and some diarrhea, a 24-hour bug that started last week,” Rosanne Tousignant, vice president of operations at North Country Associates, said.

The Lewiston organization manages the Rumford facility, which is overseen by John Welsh, chief executive officer of Rumford Hospital.

She said that last week up to 20 of the home’s 75 patients and nine staff members were sickened. The staffers were sent home to recover and are now back to work.

“They have followed the usual routine of good hand-washing technique, because like I said, it’s just the nausea, vomiting and some diarrhea for a short time, but they had up to 20 residents (affected) for a while,” Tousignant said.

“When something like this breaks out with a community of people like that, we ask them to stay in their rooms and not to have activities going on in a central area where they bring everybody to the central area, that’s all.”

“You just have to ride it out, but it’s about 24 hours, so it’s short-lived anyway.”

Signs were posted on doors at the community home advising the public of the illness and telling them not to visit.

“We’re just asking people if they don’t have to visit, please don’t, so they don’t bring anything else back in,” Tousignant said.

As required, the facility’s administrator advised the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the outbreak.

Norovirus can spread easily from person to person, the CDCP website states.

“Currently, there is no medication that works against norovirus and there is no vaccine to prevent infection,” a fact sheet at the CDCP site states.

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