title: Virological, serological, and clinical features of an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis due to recombinant genogroup II norovirus in an infant home.
abstract: Norovirus (NV) is an important cause of acute nonbacterial gastroenteritis worldwide. Recently, several sporadic cases due to naturally occurring recombinant NVs have been reported. In January 2000, there was an outbreak of gastroenteritis in an infant home in Sapporo, Japan. Of 34 residents of the home that were less than 2 years old, 23 developed gastrointestinal symptoms and NV infection was confirmed by conventional reverse transcription-PCR to detect the RNA polymerase region of genogroup II NV. In this virus, the RNA polymerase region shared 86% nucleotide identity with Hawaii virus but only 77% with Mexico virus; however, its capsid region shared only 70% identity with Hawaii virus but 90% with Mexico virus. On the other hand, both regions shared a higher 96% nucleotide identity with Arg320 virus, which was found in Mendoza, Argentina, in 1995 and considered to be a recombinant of Hawaii and Mexico viruses. The findings indicate that the virus involved in the outbreak was similar and may have evolved from the Arg320 virus. Clinically the cases were more severe than those of previously reported sporadic or outbreak cases of NV infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Chuo-ku, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsugawa
authors.forename: Kazuko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Numata-Kinoshita
authors.forename: Shinjiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Honma
authors.forename: Shuji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakata
authors.forename: Masatoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tatsumi
authors.forename: Yoshiyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.forename: Katsuro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Natori
authors.forename: Naokazu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tsutsumi
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D017250:Caliciviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000821:virology; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D029322:Norovirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010802:Phylogeny; D011995:Recombination, Genetic