Vomit Machine Helps Detect Clues About How Norovirus Spreads (WATCH)

First Posted: Aug 20, 2015 03:55 PM EDT

Researchers have created a "vomit machine." And yes. It sounds like some nauseating, sci-fi creation. But indeed, it is being used for medical science purposes that are quite helpful.

Right now, researchers at North Carolina State University are studying if patients infected with the norovirus directly or indirectly come in contact with a sick person's vomit--a highly contagious virus that's estimated to cause 20 million causes of food poisoning in the United States each year, alone.

Previous research has suggested that the norovirus can be aerosolized in vomit. However, this is not yet a proven fact, even though it can be detected in dried vomit after six weeks.

Researchers created a model version of the mouth, stomach and esophagus by using a pressure chamber and tubes that pass through a clay face, along with the angle of vomit to be adjusted. The face is situated inside a large box, which allows researchers to see where projectile vomit lands once it's ejected from the body.

"This machinery may seem odd, but it's helping us understand a disease that affects millions of people," said Lee-Ann Jaykus, a professor of food science at North Carolina State University, in a news release. "This is work that can help us prevent or contain the spread of norovirus-and there's nothing odd about that."

With the help of fake vomit and the bacteriophage MS2--otherwise known as what researchers use in labs for experiments on the norovirus so as not to infect humans--researchers discovered that the norovirus is aerosolized in vomit enough to infect other people.

Furthermore, they discovered millions of virus particles that could potentially infect thousands of people in the lab setting, which may take as little as 20 particles to result in infection. However, MS2 was less than 0.3 percent of vomit.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal PLOS ONE.

Want to learn more about the vomit machine? Check out this video, courtesy of YouTube.