Study on the epidemiologic characteristics of norovirus infection in Beijing / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of norovirus infection in Beijing.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Both outbreaks and sporadic cases of acute gastroenteritis were studied through questionnaires while the stools of patients were collected. Noroviruses were detected by ELISA or RT-PCR, and PCR products were cloned and sequenced.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Eight outbreaks were reported between November 2006 and March 2007, which were confirmed as nosocomial infections. A total of 158 positive cases were detected among 409 sporadic cases of acute virus gastroenteritis with a positive rate of 38.63%. The highest positive rate (55.00%) was found in group aged from 40 to 44, while the lowest positive rate (21.74%) fell into groups aged from 55 to 59. The positive cases aged from 6 months to 91 years with the mean age of 40 years old including 84 males and 74 females. Data from sequence analysis showed that norovirus epidemic strains helonged to the GII/4 variants in Beijing, which were almost identical to the variants causing epidemics both in the Netherlands and in Japan.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Norovirus was important, causing virus-borne diarrhea between 2006 and 2007 in Beijing, and the epidemic strains were consistent with those isolated from both the Netherlands and Japan in 2006.</p>