Positive results from a small 90-subject vaccine trial have suggested that an experimental immunisation against norovirus could provide protection against the winter vomiting bug.

Subjects in both the intervention and control arms of the trial were challenged with the virus and the results showed that vaccination using an intranasally delivered virus-like particle vaccine significantly reduced the frequency of Norwalk virus gastroenteritis and infection compared with control subjects given a placebo.

Some 69 per cent of placebo recipients became unwell with gastroenteritis compared with 37 per cent of vaccine recipients.

The latest norovirus activity update from the Health Protection Agency reports that the number of patients reporting diarrhoea and vomiting to NHS Direct is decreasing and is "within the normal levels expected for this time of year".

Last month, the HPA published a draft version of guidelines on the management of norovirus outbreaks, recommending rehydration and the avoidance of dehydration as the "mainstay treatments of norovirus".

Attention to any underlying conditions must be maintained, it advised, adding: "The use of anti-emetic agents and anti-diarrhoeal agents is discouraged although it is recognised that some clinicians find them useful in norovirus outbreaks. Care must be taken to avoid adverse consequences of their use in other infective gastroeneteritides."