Epidemic viral gastroenteritis in Queensland coincides with the emergence of a new norovirus variant
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33321/cdi.2005.29.41Keywords:
norovirus, epidemic, new variant, viral gastroenteritisAbstract
Norovirus infections cause widespread morbidity and have significant economic impact on the community. An increase in outbreaks of norovirus gastroenteritis in hospitals, nursing homes and in the community was observed in Queensland in 2004. Molecular analysis of positive samples indicated the emergence of a single strain of norovirus. A 252 nucleotide sequence from the polymerase region (POL) was compared to sequences of the new variant genotype GII.4 that has caused epidemics in the Northern Hemisphere in 2002 and 2003. Sequence analysis indicated greater than 95 per cent similarity in the POL between the Queensland strain and the Northern Hemisphere 2002/3 GII.4 variant. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the Queensland strain forms a branch within the GII.4 genotype separate from the 2002 variant from Europe and North America. Although norovirus genotype GII.4 had circulated in Queensland in the past, the 2004 strain was characterised specifically by three nucleotides not present in any other sequences held in our database covering the years 2002–June 2004. Commun Dis Intell 2005;29:370–373.
Downloads
References
Fankhauser RL, Noel JS, Monroe SS, Ando T, Glass RI. Molecular epidemiology of 'Norwalk-like viruses' in outbreaks of gastroenteritis in the United States. J Infect Dis1998;178:1571–1578
Green KY, Kapikian AZ, Chanock RM. Human caliciviruses: In Griffin DM, et al, eds. Fields virology, 4th edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott-Raven 1999; 841–874.
Jiang X, Wang M, Wang K, Estes MK. Sequence and genomic organization of Norwalk virus. Virology 1993; 195:51–61.
Kapikian AZ,. Ed. Norwalk and norwalk -like viruses. In: Viral Infections of the Gastrointestinal Tract 2nd edition. New York: Marcel Dekker Inc, 1994; pp 471–518.
Parashar UD, Monroe S. Norwalk-like virsues as a cause of foodborne disease outbreaks. Rev Med Virol 2001;243–252.
Rockx B, De Wit M, Vennema H, Vinjé J, De Bruin E, Van Duynhoven Y, et al. Natural history of human calicivirus infection: a prospective cohort study. Clin Infect Dis 2002;35:246–253.
Kageyama T, Kojima S, Shinohara M, Uchida K, Fukushi S, Hoshino FB, et al. Broadly reactive and highly sensitive assay for Norwalk-like viruses based on real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR. J Clin Microbiol 2003;41;4:1548–1557.
Greene SR, Moe CL, Jaykus LA, Cronin M, Grosso L, van Aarle P. Evaluation of the NucliSens® basic kit assay for detection of Norwalk virus RNA in stool specimens. J Virol Methods 2003;108:123–131.
Glass RI, Noel J, Ando T, Fankhauser R, Belliot G, et al. The Epidemiology of enteric caliciviruses from humans: a reassessment using new diagnostics [Review]. J Infect Dis2000;181 Suppl 2:S254–S261.
Jothikumar H, Lowther J, Henshilwood K, Lees DN, Hill VR, Vinjé J. Rapid and sensitive detection of noroviruses by using TaqMan-based one-step reverse transcription-PCR assay and application to naturally contaminated shellfish samples. Appl Environ Microbiol 2005;1870–1875.
Noel JS, Fankhauser RL, Ando T, Monroe SS, Glass RI. Identification of a distinct common strain of 'Norwalk-like viruses' having a global distribution. J Infect Dis1999;179:1334–1344.
Jansen A, Beyer A, Brandt C, Hohne M, Schreier E, Schulzke J, et al. The norovirus-epidemic in Berlin-clinic, epidemiology, and prevention. Z Gastroenterol 2004;42:311–316.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Norovirus Activity– United States, 2002. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep2003;52:41–45.
Lopman B, Vennema H, Kohli E, Pothier P, Sanchez A, Negredo A, el al. Increase in viral gastroenteritis outbreaks in Europe and epidemic spread of new norovirus variant. Lancet 2004;363:682–688.
Jiang X, Huang PW, Zhong M, Farkas T, Cubitt DW, Matson DO. Design and evaluation of a primer pair that detects both Norwalk- and Sapporo-like caliciviruses by RT-PCR. J Virol Methods1999;83:145–154.
Thompson JD, Higgins DG, Gibson TJ. CLUSTAL W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Res 1994;22:4673–4680.
Vinjé J, Vennema H, Maunula L, von Bonsdorff C, Hoehne M, Schreier E, et al. International collaborative study to compare reverse transcriptase PCR assays for detection and genotyping of noroviruses. J Clin Microbiol 2003;4:1423–1433.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2005 Communicable Diseases Intelligence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
