An increasing trend of human sapovirus infection in Japan, 2009 to 2019: An emerging public health concern

Hoque, Sirajul; Nishimura, Koji; Thongprachum, Aksara; Khamrin, Pattara; Pham, Ngan Thi Kim; Islam, Mohammad Tajul; Khandoker, Nusrat; Okitsu, Shoko; Onda-Shimizu, Yuko; Dey, Shubra Kanti; Maneekarn, Niwat; Kobayashi, Takeshi; Hayakawa, Satoshi; Ushijima, Hiroshi

doi:10.1016/j.jiph.2022.01.019

Cited by 12 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Recently, we wrote a letter to the editor pointing out the abundance of AGE viruses in raw SW during the COVID-19 pandemic, when AGE patients in clinics were drastically reduced (Hoque et al, 2022a , 2022b , 2022c ). However, the molecular characteristics of circulating strains in SW during the pandemic are not yet known.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It was thought that the precautious lifestyle adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic may have decreased viral AGE. However, more recently, we detected an abundance of diarrheal viruses in raw sewage during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that infections in the population may not have decreased with the introduction of NPIs (Hoque et al, 2022a , 2022b , 2022c ). The number of cases declined, likely due to reduced transmission because of school closures, activity restrictions, as well as patients’ disinterest in seeking medical care during the pandemic, resulting in fewer reports (Armistead et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…The first PCR product (1 μl) was re-amplified using the same specific primers if the first PCR remained negative or faint. In addition, RV-vaccine strain-specific RT-qPCR was done to assess Rotarix (NSP2 gene) and RotaTeq (VP6 gene) strains in all RVA-positive samples as described previously (Gautam et al, 2014 ; Hoque et al, 2022a , 2022b , 2022c ). To detect nCoV, both nested and real-time RT-PCRs were performed using primer sets of ORF1a (Shirato et al, 2020 ) and CDC 2019-nCoV_N2 (Kitamura et al, 2021 ), respectively.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Being a developed and industrialized nation, Japan still struggles against AGE-associated morbidity and economic losses throughout the year (Kawata et al, 2020 ). To prevent severe RV infections, Japan has introduced RV vaccines as voluntary vaccines since 2011 and included these in the national immunization program from October 2020, yet the diversity in RV genotypes and increasing trends of other diarrheal viruses have been found in post-RV-vaccination era worldwide including Japan (Gikonyo et al, 2020 ; Hoque et al, 2022a , 2022b , 2022c ; Tsugawa et al, 2021 ). However, after the emergence of the pandemic coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) , the implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) like social distancing, mask-wearing, increased hand hygiene, school closures, and working from home have proven effective to reduce COVID-19 along with many other infectious diseases including AGE (Eigner et al, 2021 ; Zhang et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Genotype Diversity of Enteric Viruses in Wastewater Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

et al. 2023

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Viruses remain the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) worldwide. Recently, we reported the abundance of AGE viruses in raw sewage water (SW) during the COVID-19 pandemic, when viral AGE patients decreased dramatically in clinics. Since clinical samples were not reflecting the actual state, it remained important to determine the circulating strains in the SW for preparedness against impending outbreaks. Raw SW was collected from a sewage treatment plant in Japan from August 2018 to March 2022, concentrated by polyethylene-glycol-precipitation method, and investigated for major gastroenteritis viruses by RT-PCR. Genotypes and evolutionary relationships were evaluated through sequence-based analyses. Major AGE viruses like rotavirus A (RVA), norovirus (NoV) GI and GII, and astrovirus (AstV) increased sharply (10–20%) in SW during the COVID-19 pandemic, though some AGE viruses like sapovirus (SV), adenovirus (AdV), and enterovirus (EV) decreased slightly (3–10%). The prevalence remained top in the winter. Importantly, several strains, including G1 and G3 of RVA, GI.1 and GII.2 of NoV, GI.1 of SV, MLB1 of AstV, and F41 of AdV, either emerged or increased amid the pandemic, suggesting that the normal phenomenon of genotype changing remained active over this time. This study crucially presents the molecular characteristics of circulating AGE viruses, explaining the importance of SW investigation during the pandemic when a clinical investigation may not produce the complete scenario.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Genotype Diversity of Enteric Viruses in Wastewater Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

et al. 2023

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“…8,9 Last time, we showed an upward trend of SaV infections in Japan after the introduction of the voluntary RV-vaccination program in 2011−2012. 10 Actually, two RV vaccines, Rotarix and RotaTeq, providing homotypic and heterotypic protection remained effective and indispensable towards reducing the disease severity in RV infections, yet it is expected that the introduction of RV vaccines may create certain immune pressure to decrease RV infection but may increase AGE by other diarrheal viruses. [11][12][13][14] Recently, RV vaccines have been included in the national immunization program in Japan since October 2020.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sapovirus infections in Japan before and after the emergence of the COVID‐19 pandemic: An alarming update

Hoque

Pham

Onda-Shimizu

et al. 2023

Journal of Medical Virology

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An increasing trend of sapovirus (SaV) infections in Japanese children during 2009−2019, particularly after the introduction of the voluntary rotavirus (RV)‐vaccination program has been observed. Herein, we investigated the epidemiological situation of SaV infections from 2019 to 2022 when people adopted a precautionary lifestyle due to the emergence of the COVID‐19 pandemic, and RV vaccines had been implemented as routine vaccines. Stool samples were collected from children who attended outpatient clinics with acute gastroenteritis and analyzed by reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction to determine viral etiology. Among 961 stool samples, 80 (8.3%) were positive for SaV: 2019−2020 (6.5%), 2020−2021 (0%), and 2021−2022 (12.8%). The trend of SaV infection in Japanese children yet remained upward with statistical significance (p = 0.000). The major genotype was GI.1 (75%) which caused a large outbreak in Kyoto between December 2021 and February 2022. Phylogenetic, gene sequence and deduced amino acid sequence analyses suggested that these GI.1 strains detected in the outbreak and other places during 2021−2022 or 2019−2020 remained genetically identical and widely spread. This study reveals that SaV infection is increasing among Japanese children which is a grave concern and demands immediate attention to be paid before SaV attains a serious public health problem.

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Epidemiology and molecular evolution of GI.1 sapovirus in the recent era

Hoque,

Akari,

Khamrin

et al. 2024

Journal of Medical Virology

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Sapovirus (SaV) infection is increasing worldwide. Herein, we provided evidence of a significant increase in SaV infection in Japan during 2010–2022, primarily due to the considerable (p = 0.0003) rise of the GI.1 genotype. Furthermore, we found that all major and minor SaV outbreaks in Japan, including the largest SaV outbreak in 2021–2022, were caused by the GI.1 genotype. Therefore, to get insight into the underlying molecular mechanism behind this rising trend of the SaV GI.1 type, we selected 15 SaV GI.1 outbreak strains for complete genome analysis through next‐generation sequencing. Phylogenetically, our strains remained clustered in different branches in lineages I and II among the GI.1 genotype. We showed all amino acid (aa) substitutions in different open reading frames (ORFs) in these strains. Importantly, we have demonstrated that the strains involved in the largest SaV outbreak in Japan in 2021–2022 belonged to lineage II and possessed the third ORF. We have identified some unique aa mutations in these major outbreak strains in the NS1 and NS6‐NS7 regions that are thought to be associated with viral pathogenicity, cell tropism, and epidemiological competence. Thus, in addition to enriching the database of SaV's complete sequences, this study provides insights into its important mutations.

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An increasing trend of human sapovirus infection in Japan, 2009 to 2019: An emerging public health concern

Cited by 12 publications

References 34 publications

Genotype Diversity of Enteric Viruses in Wastewater Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Genotype Diversity of Enteric Viruses in Wastewater Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Sapovirus infections in Japan before and after the emergence of the COVID‐19 pandemic: An alarming update

Epidemiology and molecular evolution of GI.1 sapovirus in the recent era

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