title: Epidemiology of gastroenteritis viruses in Japan: Prevalence, seasonality, and outbreak.
abstract: Acute gastroenteritis has been recognized as one of the most common diseases in humans and continues to be a major public health problem worldwide. Several groups of viruses have been reported as the causative agents of acute gastroenteritis, including rotavirus, norovirus, sapovirus, human astrovirus, adenovirus, and an increasing number of others which have been reported more recently. The epidemiology, prevalence, seasonality, and outbreaks of these viruses have been reviewed in a number of studies conducted in Japan over three decades. Rotavirus and norovirus were the two most common viruses detected almost equally in children under 5 years of age who were suffering from acute gastroenteritis. Like many other countries, the main rotavirus strains circulating in pediatric patients in Japan are G1P[8], G2P[4], G3P[8], and G9P[8]. Norovirus GII.4 was involved in most outbreaks in Japan and found to be associated with the emergence of new variants Sydney_2012. The classic human astrovirus, MLB, and VA clades astroviruses were also commonly found in pediatric patients with acute diarrhea. The sapovirus and adenovirus have been identified as the minor viral causative agents for acute gastroenteritis in Japan.
authors.affiliation: Division of Microbiology, Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.|Department of Developmental Medical Sciences, School of International Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Aksara
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thongprachum
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Department of Microbiology, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
authors.forename: Pattara
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Khamrin
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Department of Microbiology, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
authors.forename: Niwat
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Maneekarn
authors.affiliation: Division of Microbiology, Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hayakawa
authors.affiliation: Division of Microbiology, Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.|Department of Developmental Medical Sciences, School of International Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ushijima
mesh_terms: D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D001257:Mamastrovirus; D015995:Prevalence; D012621:Seasons; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D014780:Viruses / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification*
keywords: Japan; epidemiology; gastroenteritis; virus