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Norovirus infection in children admitted to hospital for acute gastroenteritis in Belém, Pará, Northern Brazil
Author(s) -
Siqueira Jones Anderson Monteiro,
Linhares Alexandre da Costa,
de Carvalho Thaís Cristiscimento,
Aragão Glicélia Cruz,
Oliveira Darleise de Souza,
dos Santos Mirleide Cordeiro,
de Sousa Maisa Silva,
Justino Maria Cleonice Aguiar,
Mascarenhas Joana D'Arc Pereira,
Gabbay Yvone Benchimol
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.23506
Subject(s) - norovirus , rotavirus , acute gastroenteritis , feces , virology , diarrhea , outbreak , medicine , genotype , immunoassay , acute diarrhea , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , virus , gastroenterology , immunology , antibody , gene , biochemistry
Noroviruses are the leading cause of epidemic, non‐bacterial outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis, and are also a major cause of sporadic acute gastroenteritis in infants. The aim of the present study was to identify norovirus infections in children not infected by rotavirus admitted to hospital for acute gastroenteritis in Belém. A total of 348 fecal specimens were obtained from children with diarrhea aged less than 5 years, all of whom had tested negative for rotavirus, between May 2008 and April 2010. Fecal samples were screened for norovirus antigen using enzyme‐immunoassay (EIA). Specimens were subjected to reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) using the primers Mon432/434–Mon431/433 for detection of the GI and GII norovirus strains, respectively. Based on both methods, the overall norovirus positivity rate was 36.5% (127/348). Of the 169 samples collected in the first year, 44.4% (n = 75) tested positive for norovirus using both methods, 35.5% (n = 60) by EIA and 40.8% (n = 69) by RT‐PCR. Using RT‐PCR as a reference standard, a sensitivity of 78.3%, specificity of 94%, and agreement of 87.6% were recorded. Genome sequencing was obtained for 22 (31.9%) of the 69 positive samples, of which 90.9% (20/22) were genotype GII.4d and 9.1% (2/22) were genotype GII.b. Norovirus infection was most frequent in children under 2 years of age (41.5%–115/277). The peak incidence (62.1%) of norovirus‐related acute gastroenteritis in these patients (not infected by rotavirus) was observed in February 2010. These findings emphasize the importance of norovirus as a cause of severe acute gastroenteritis among children in Belém, Pará, Northern Brazil. J. Med. Virol. 85:737–744, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.