Acute Viral Gastroenteritis: Viruses Other Than Norovirus

Abstract

Acute Viral Gastroenteritis: Viruses Other Than Norovirus Abstract. Norovirus is the leading cause of acute viral gastroenteritis. Norovirus is highly contagious, thus outbreaks of norovirus in hospitals and long-term care facilities are feared. Usually, stool samples of patients with a potentially viral gastroenteritis are first checked for the presence of norovirus. In recent years, sapovirus and astrovirus were increasingly reported as cause of acute gastroenteritis. Outbreaks of acute viral gastroenteritis caused by sapovirus or astrovirus are hardly distinguishable from those caused by norovirus because of a similar clinical presentation. Molecular analyses of stool specimen are needed for accurate diagnosis of the viral cause of acute gastroenteritis. It is worth to further investigate stool samples of patients suspected of acute viral gastroenteritis not only for norovirus, but also for sapovirus and astrovirus.