[Epidemiological study of human caliciviruses among children with acute diarrhea in Lulong county, 1999 - 2001].
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.
Lü
Hong-xia
HX
Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100052, China.
Fang
Zhao-yin
ZY
Xie
Hua-ping
HP
Tang
Jing-yu
JY
Hu
Hai-kuan
HK
Zheng
Li-shu
LS
Ye
Qing
Q
Zhang
Qing
Q
Zhong
Wei-min
WM
Xi
Jiang
J
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