[Clinical manifestations of norovirus gastroenteritis in infants and children].
OBJECTIVE
To study the clinical manifestations for norovirus gastroenteritis in infants and young children.


METHODS
Stool specimens were collected from infants and children with acute diarrhea who visited the affiliated Children's Hospital to Capital Institute of Pediatrics from January 2002 to December 2006. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect human norovirus antigen in stool specimens and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) was performed to detect rotavirus genome.


RESULTS
Out of the 318 specimens under testing, 79 showed positive for norovirus antigen, with a positive rate of 24.8% (79/318). Among those positive specimens, 48(48/79, 60.8%) were detected in October to December, suggesting the seasonal preference of the virus. Most of the positive specimens (91.2%) were from those under 2 years of age. Rotavirus genome were detected from 16 out of 79 norovirus positive specimens (16/79, 20.3%), indicating those patients were co-infected by these two viruses. There was significant difference found in the severity of fever but not in the frequencies of diarrhea between rotavirus and norovirus co-infection group and noroviral infection group. Fourteen out of 79 norovirus positive patients were admitted to hospitals under the diagnosis other than gastroenteritis but started to develop symptoms of diarrhea between 1 to 11 days after hospitalization.


CONCLUSIONS
Norovirus seemed one of the most important pathogens for acute diarrhea among infants and young children and could cause nosocomial infectious gastroenteritis.
Deng
Li
L
Department for Infection and Digestive Tract Diseases, Affiliated Children's Hospital to Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing 100020, China.
Jia
Li-Ying
LY
Chen
Dong-Mei
DM
Zhang
You
Y
Qian
Yuan
Y
D017250:Caliciviridae Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology*; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D029322:Norovirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity*