A nosocomial sapovirus-associated outbreak of gastroenteritis in adults.
The human caliciviruses norovirus and sapovirus are leading causes of acute, non-bacterial gastroenteritis. In contrast to norovirus, sapovirus is known to give infections mainly in infants and young children. We describe a nosocomial outbreak of gastroenteritis associated with sapovirus involving 23 adult patients and medical staff. The mean age of the patients and medical staff was 52 y and the major signs and symptoms were nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal cramp, headache, myalgia and fever. More patients had diarrhoea (72%) than vomiting (56%) and the mean duration of symptoms was 6 d. A secondary attack rate of 45% was seen affecting in all 10 persons with a mean age of 29 y. Sequences of the capsid gene revealed a 97% nucleotide homology to the sapovirus genogroup IV reference strain Chiba/000671T/1999. This is one of the first reported nosocomial outbreaks of sapovirus infection among adults and shows that a diagnostic test for sapovirus should be included in investigation of gastroenteritis among adults.
Johansson
P J Hugo
PJ
Hospital Infection Control Unit, Department of Medical Microbiology, Dermatology and Infection, Lund University Hospital, Lund, Sweden. hugo.johansson@skane.se
Bergentoft
Katarina
K
Larsson
Per Anders
PA
Magnusson
Gunilla
G
Widell
Anders
A
Thorhagen
Margareta
M
Hedlund
Kjell-Olof
KO
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017250:Caliciviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D006282:Health Personnel; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D029341:Sapovirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology