Prevalence And Characterization Of Norovirus In Children And Infants With Sporadic Acute Gastroenteritis, And Comparison Of Methods To Detect Norovirus

Objective: The aim of the present study was to describe the epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of human noroviruses among children with symptoms of acute nonbacterial gastroenteritis. The study also evaluates the pan-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay detection of natural norovinises from stool samples of infants and children with sporadic acute gastroenteritis compared to reverse transcription-PCR.Method: Stool samples and clinical data were collected between June 2005 and December 2006 from sporadic symptomatic children at the second hospitals of West china medical center. All of the specimens were detected by RT-PCR and pan-ELISA and determined the sensitivity and specificity of both ELISA kits relative to RT-PCR.Result: Of the 149 specimens examined, we identified 46 HuNVs infections. The prevalence of human norovinises causing sporadic cases of acute gastroenteritis in young children was 30.9%. The average age of children infected HuNVs was 13.59 + 9.66 months. And the epidemic period of HuNVs was September-December, with September to November as months of major prevalence. Compared to the RT-PCR, sensitivities of 39% and specificities of 100% were found for pan-ELISA.Conclusion: Following rotavirus, HuNVs were the second common causative viral agent in acute sporadic gastroenteritis of infant and children. Our study indicate that pan-ELISA cannot replace the RT-PCR methods used to detect HuNVs, but it is still one promising method used to detect HuNVs.