[Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis caused by human calicivirus in Lulong County].
OBJECTIVE
To survey an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis in Lulong County and analyze the cause of the disease.


METHODS
Epidemiological methods were applied to investigate an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis occurred in June 2000 in Lulong County. Stool specimens were collected from diarrhea patients and were tested for human calicivirus by ELISA and RT-PCR. The products of RT-PCR were cloned and sequenced, then phylogenetic analysis was carried out.


RESULTS
In total, 736 farmers were surveyed, among them 134 had acute gastroenteritis, the attack rate was 18.20%, and one elderly patient died. The age of patients was from 1 to 77 years and the incidence of the disease among young people was higher with a peak in June 25 through 30. Six stool specimens were tested for caliciviruses by ELISA and 3 were positives, one of them was confirmed by RT-PCR and belonged to norovirus genotype GI/2. No other pathogens were detected.


CONCLUSIONS
Human calicivirus was confirmed to be the cause of the outbreak of acute gastroenteritis.
Tang
Jin-Yu
JY
Lulong Center of Disease Control and Prevention, Hebei Province, Lulong, China.
Xie
Hua-Ping
HP
Hu
Hai-Kuan
HK
Duan
Zhao-Jun
ZJ
Fang
Zhao-Yin
ZY
D000208:Acute Disease; D002139:Caliciviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017250:Caliciviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D012367:RNA, Viral