Outbreaks of gastroenteritis that occurred during school excursions in Korea were associated with several waterborne strains of norovirus.
In May 2004, 97 of 309 (31%) and 97 of 207 (47%) school students from geographically distant areas were affected by acute gastroenteritis during excursions to neighboring hotels. The two hotels were 300 m apart, on Jeju Island, South Korea. Several strains of norovirus, including both genogroup I and genogroup II viruses, were identified in stool samples from the students and food handlers and in groundwater from the hotels. Of these several strains of norovirus, the nucleotide sequences for one strain were identical for samples from the students, food handlers, and groundwater.
Kim
Sung-Han
SH
Division of Enteric and Hepatitis Viruses, Department of Virology, National Institute of Health, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Cheon
Doo-Sung
DS
Kim
Jin-Hyeun
JH
Lee
Dong-Han
DH
Jheong
Won-Hwa
WH
Heo
Young-Joo
YJ
Chung
Hyen-Mi
HM
Jee
Youngmee
Y
Lee
Joo-Shil
JS
D000208:Acute Disease; D017250:Caliciviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000821:virology; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D029322:Norovirus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012574:Schools; D014195:Travel; D014876:Water Pollution; D014881:Water Supply