It’s not 100 percent certain that all patients are suffering from norovirus specifically, but the threat the infection poses justifies a prompt response. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that there are about 56,000 to 71,000 hospitalizations and 570 to 800 deaths, mostly young children and the elderly, each year among those infected by it in the U.S.
Later on Friday, the National Guard began setting up medical tents for Camp fire evacuees affected by norovirus in an attempt to better control its spread from shelter to shelter, all overcrowded with people made homeless by the fire and people who were already homeless but needed relief from the smoke. Some brought dogs and other pets.
Meanwhile, counties more than a hundred miles from the fire are grappling with the health consequences of smoke that’s settled around their homes.
Since the Camp fire erupted on Nov. 8, the skies throughout the affected areas and spilling down into the San Francisco Bay Area have been brown and hazy. Visibility is poor. In San Francisco, the tops of buildings seem to disappear into the haze. Everywhere the air smells like fire.
That smoky, polluted air is full of microscopic pieces of particulate matter measuring roughly 2.5 micrometers or smaller, or PM 2.5. These particulates are too small to be caught by our lungs’ filtration system and instead enter our bloodstreams, posing potential health risks to anyone breathing it but particularly to those with respiratory issues, as well as to older adults and children. Coughing, wheezing and other side effects have already affected many of those exposed to the abysmal air.
The Butte County Air Quality Management District reported “hazardous” air quality in Paradise, where the fire started, and in nearby Chico, Oroville and Gridley. The Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow site reported an Air Quality Index of 350 in Chico. For context, Delhi, India ― one of the most notoriously polluted cities in the world ― on Friday measured an AQI of about 240.
Even the Bay Area, more than 165 miles from the epicenter of the Camp fire, is experiencing air quality conditions considered unsafe for anyone to go outside. The EPA measured an AQI of 238 in San Francisco on Friday.
Northern Californians take their good air for granted. Last year, San Francisco had 276 days with an AQI rating of “good.” The average AQI in Delhi is “poor.”
Article source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/california-wildfires-public-health_us_5bef0747e4b0f7192ca93d1c