[Study on the epidemiologic characteristics of norovirus infection in Beijing].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of norovirus infection in Beijing.


METHODS
Both outbreaks and sporadic cases of acute gastroenteritis were studied through questionnaires while the stools of patients were collected. Noroviruses were detected by ELISA or RT-PCR, and PCR products were cloned and sequenced.


RESULTS
Eight outbreaks were reported between November 2006 and March 2007, which were confirmed as nosocomial infections. A total of 158 positive cases were detected among 409 sporadic cases of acute virus gastroenteritis with a positive rate of 38.63%. The highest positive rate (55.00%) was found in group aged from 40 to 44, while the lowest positive rate (21.74%) fell into groups aged from 55 to 59. The positive cases aged from 6 months to 91 years with the mean age of 40 years old including 84 males and 74 females. Data from sequence analysis showed that norovirus epidemic strains helonged to the GII/4 variants in Beijing, which were almost identical to the variants causing epidemics both in the Netherlands and in Japan.


CONCLUSIONS
Norovirus was important, causing virus-borne diarrhea between 2006 and 2007 in Beijing, and the epidemic strains were consistent with those isolated from both the Netherlands and Japan in 2006.
Wu
Jiang
J
Beijing Municipal Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Beijing 100013, China.
Gao
Zhi-Yong
ZY
Liu
Gui-Rong
GR
Liu
Yuan
Y
Li
Jie
J
Luo
Ming
M
Wu
Xiao-Na
XN
Jia
Lei
L
Dou
Xiang-Feng
XF
Yan
Han-Qiu
HQ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017250:Caliciviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D029322:Norovirus / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D055815:Young Adult