Norovirus

Although fresh produce is usually quite a healthy food choice, there's always a risk that it may be contaminated with norovirus. That said, new research now indicates that a fruit-derived coating helps eliminate such viruses more effectively than ever before.

A team of researchers has discovered that the norovirus bug can escape destruction by hiding in a rare type of cell found in the gut. Norovirus is the leading cause of non-bacterial gastroenteritis, which causes 267 million infections, and 200,000 deaths worldwide each year.

To shed further light on how norovirus, one of the world's most common pathogens, spreads between humans, scientists have built a vomiting machine to study its behaviour when projected into the air.