When is the stomach flu season?

Answer 1

The "stomach flu" is most prevalent in winter in temperate climates and in summer in the tropics. For that reason, it used to also be called "winter flu". It is also sometimes called the Norwalk flu or Norwalk agent (a very large outbreak occurred in Norwalk, hence the name).

It is actually not really the flu. What is most often called stomach flu is viral gastroenteritis. That just means an irritation of the stomach and intestines by a virus. It is very contagious and is commonly spread when people are gathered together in close proximity through person to person contact or fecal contamination of foods or water. Sometimes food borne illness/food poisoning that is due to bacteria is also mistakenly called the stomach flu.

The viruses most commonly associated with viral gastroenteritis are Norovirus and Rotavirus.