HARRISON — A virus that is being described as “fast and furious” may have run its course at the elementary school after affecting less than 10 percent of the 215 students over the past several days.

School Superintendent Rick Colpitts said Tuesday that 15 students either called in sick or were sent home early with a stomach virus on Friday, another 17 on Monday and eight students on Tuesday.

“It appears as though the virus has run its course,” Colpitts said of the norovirus that he said was described to him as “similar to what happens on a cruise ship.”

“It’s fast and furious then goes away,” he said. A norovirus causes about 90 percent of epidemic non-bacterial outbreaks of stomach flus in closed environments such as cruise ships of schools, according to information from the Mayo Clinic website.

Colpitts reported to the Oxford Hills School District Board of Directors on Monday night that the school nurse has been in touch with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention about the illness. The CDC did not recommend that the school be closed despite the high numbers of sick children, but rather that staff double their sanitation efforts, such as hand-washing.

Doorknobs will be washed twice a day along with keyboards and other areas often touched by students and staff, Colpitts said.

“We’ll just up the cleaning routine,” he said.

Such outbreaks at schools are not uncommon, he said. A respiratory flu is making the rounds at the West Paris Elementary School and illness is affecting students the Oxford Elementary School.

“It’s difficult when you put 200 to 300 kids in a building to avoid things like that,” he said.

The CDC defines an outbreak of influenza or influenza like illnesses to be when 15 percent or more of the school population is affected at one time. No influenza outbreaks have been reported by the CDC as of November 26.

ldixon@sunjournal.com