A 5‐year study of the prevalence and genetic diversity of human caliciviruses associated with sporadic cases of acute gastroenteritis in young children admitted to hospital in Melbourne, Australia (1998–2002)

Abstract

The prevalence and genetic diversity of human caliciviruses causing sporadic cases of acute gastroenteritis in young children hospitalized in a large pediatric hospital in Melbourne, Australia over 5 years (incorporating January 1998-December 2002) was studied by reverse transcription and sequence analysis of part of the polymerase gene. The overall prevalence of calicivirus infection in children aged <5 years during the 5 year study was 9.2% (113/1,233), with 95% of the strains belonging to the Norovirus genera. Strains of the norovirus G11-4 cluster were the most common type identified in 4 of the 5 years studied (1998, 1999, 2001, and 2002), with strains of norovirus cluster G11-5 the most common type during 2000. Additional norovirus genetic clusters GI-3, GII-1, GII-2, GII-3, GII-6, and GII-7, were also identified, but comprised only 17/94 of norovirus genogroup II strains. Five sapovirus strains were also identified. These results highlight the divergence of norovirus strains identified in a pediatric population.

Epidemiology and clinical features of gastroenteritis in hospitalised children: prospective survey during a 2-year period in a Parisian hospital, France

“…Norovirus genotype GII.4 has also been reported as the main norovirus genotype in sporadic cases of gastroenteritis in children [9,25,28]. In accordance with these previous reports, our results show that norovirus GGII.4 was predominantly detected in the faeces of children.…”

“…However, few studies have investigated prospectively the relative contributions of the different enteric viruses and bacteria in children admitted to hospital for gastroenteritis in developed countries. In accordance with our results, studies conducted in other developed countries in hospitalized children found a large predominance of viruses (56 to 70%) versus bacteria (4 to 17%) [25,26]. A large retrospective study conducted in Australia found the same ratio between viral and bacterial etiologies in children [27].…”

“…Among the viruses, rotaviruses were by far the main cause of gastroenteritis in hospitalized children, far ahead of noroviruses, which were found in 8-15% of children hospitalized for gastroenteritis [8,25,[29][30][31]. These studies and our results contrast with other sentinel studies conducted by physicians in the general population [5,7,10], in which the incidence of norovirus ranged from 10 to 20%.…”

Comparative molecular genetic studies of nucleic acid detection of human noroviruses

“…This is consistent with the findings of other studies of sporadic cases of gastroenteritis in children 50,51,52,53 .…”

“…Norovirus GGI strains constitute a minor proportion of strains in most outbreak 38 studies 51,54,55,56 . Maslin et al found that among noroviruses, GII were predominant as it was previously shown in industrialized countries 57 .…”