Got an e-mail from the Patriot League last night informing me Georgetown's football game at Colgate this weekend was cancelled "due to the outbreak of norovirus on [Georgetown's] campus."

This, of course, led me to ask "What the hell is a norovirus?"

I'll let the Centers for Disease Control website take over from here:

Noroviruses are a group of related, single-stranded RNA, nonenveloped viruses that cause acute gastroenteritis in humans. Norovirus was recently approved as the official genus name for the group of viruses provisionally described as "Norwalk-like viruses" (NLV).

The CDC's site also lists symptoms of noroviruses as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramping, as well as at times low-grade fever, chills, headache, muscle aches and a general sense of tiredness.

So, to answer the question, a norovirus is something you probably don't want to encounter. And since noroviruses are apparently extremely contagious, Georgetown made the right call not sending its football team several hours away this weekend in an attempt to stem the outbreak.

--- Patrick Stevens (pstevens@washingtontimes.com)

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