title: [Epidemiological study of human caliciviruses among children with acute diarrhea in Lulong county, 1999 - 2001].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the epidemiological characteristus of human caliciviruses (HuCVs) among children under 5 years of age with acute diarrhea and to estimate the disease burden in Lulong county.
  
  
  METHODS
  HuCVs were detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Some PCR amplicons were cloned and sequenced. Phylogenetic tree was constructed for strain characterization. The rate of HuCVs-attributed hospitalization was estimated according to the positive rate of HuCVs detection in fecal specimens collected from hospitalized diarrhea patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Between July 1999 and June 2001, 708 fecal specimens were collected, of which 393 rotavirus-negative and 5 rotavirus-positive specimens were detected for HuCVs. Thirty-one point six percentage of fecal specimens from patients with diarrhea was HuCVs positive. Among inpatients, HuCVs positive rate was 17.5%. HuCVs detection was mainly distributed in 3 - 17 mouth-old children, in winter. All 11 strains belonged to NLV GII in which 6 strains GII-3, 2 strains GII-4 and 3 strains GII-7, and they shared 55.1% - 100% nucleotide identity. NLV GII-4 and GII-7 were identified in 2000, while NLV GII-3 and GII-7 in 2001. The preliminary estimate of HuCVs-attributed hospitalization rate was 3.6 per thousand.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Human caliciviruses with different genotypes circulated among children in Lulong county with GII NLVs were the prevalent strains. The disease burden of HuCVs was second to rotavirus.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100052, China.
authors.forename: Hong-xia
authors.initials: HX
authors.lastname: Lü
authors.forename: Zhao-yin
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Hua-ping
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Jing-yu
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Hai-kuan
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Li-shu
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Wei-min
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xi
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000367:Age Factors; D002139:Caliciviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D017250:Caliciviridae Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004403:Dysentery / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007297:Inpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010802:Phylogeny; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012621:Seasons