Detection of the pandemic norovirus variant GII.4 Sydney 2012 in Rio Branco, state of Acre, northern Brazil

Luciana Damascena Da Silva,Maria Silvia Sousa De Lucena,Darleise De Sousa Oliveira,Luana Silva Soares,Alexandre Da Costa Linhares,Evandro Leite Rodrigues,Joana D'Arc Pereira Mascarenhas,Ian Carlos Gomes De Lima,Yvone Benchimol Gabbay

doi:10.1590/0074-0276130293

Abstract

Noroviruses (NoVs) are important cause of gastroenteritis in humans worldwide. Genotype GII.4 is responsible for the majority of outbreaks reported to date. This study describes, for the first time in Brazil, the circulation of NoV GII.4 variant Sydney 2012 in faecal samples collected from children aged less than or equal to eight years in Rio Branco, state of Acre, northern Brazil, during July-September 2012.

Highlights

Noroviruses (NoVs) are important cause of gastroenteritis in humans worldwide
The importance of NoV as agents of childhood gastroenteritis extends throughout the developing countries since the late 1970s, being considered the second causative agent of viral gastroenteritis in children under five years old (Rackoff et al 2013)
Diverse GII.4 variants have been associated with global epidemics of acute gastroenteritis from 1996 to the present, including the US 1995/96 variant in 1996 (White et al 2002), Farmington Hills variant in 2002 (Widdowson et al 2004), Hunter variant in 2004 (Bull et al 2006), 2006a and 2006b variant in 2007-2008 (Eden et al 2010), New Orleans variant in 2009-2012 (Yen et al 2011) and most recently Sydney 2012

Summary

Introduction

Noroviruses (NoVs) are important cause of gastroenteritis in humans worldwide. Genotype GII.4 is responsible for the majority of outbreaks reported to date. Noroviruses (NoVs) are the major cause of epidemic viral gastroenteritis and the leading cause of foodborne outbreaks in diverse countries in the world. Diverse GII.4 variants have been associated with global epidemics of acute gastroenteritis from 1996 to the present, including the US 1995/96 variant in 1996 (White et al 2002), Farmington Hills variant in 2002 (Widdowson et al 2004), Hunter variant in 2004 (Bull et al 2006), 2006a and 2006b variant in 2007-2008 (Eden et al 2010), New Orleans variant in 2009-2012 (Yen et al 2011) and most recently Sydney 2012 (van Beek et al 2013).

Results

Conclusion