Epidemiological portrait of noroviral infection

Abstract

Introduction. Noroviruses are a common cause of acute gastroenteritis with significant public health burden, including outbreaks in health facilities, closed and semi-closed settings. This study aims to present a global overview and trends in noroviral epidemiology and highlights the important biological properties of norovirus. Materials and methods. The bibliographic databases (PubMed and Russian Science Citation Index) were searched based on the keyword “norovirus” (in English and Russian languages respectively) without restrictions and 338 papers were retrieved. Results and Discussion. Human noroviruses are highly genetically diverse and evolve rapidly, evading the host's immune response. In addition to being highly contagious, the lack of a robust cell culture system complicates vaccine development for noroviral infection prevention. This highlights the importance of surveillance and infection control measures, for efficient use of available healthcare resources for maximizing health benefits. Common preventive measures include providing the public with safe water and food (i.e. decontamination), improvement of hand hygiene, early detection, and isolation of infected individuals. Current surveillance techniques include sentinel surveillance, molecular surveillance, disease modeling, and prediction. Further investigations in the field of norovirus prevention and control and its economics are needed, since some studies demonstrate inconsistent results (i.e. effectiveness of hand sanitizers). Conclusion. Noroviral infections represent a significant public health burden and current surveillance techniques require further improvement in terms of sensitivity and accuracy. There is a need to push research in the field of prevention and control measures (safety of water and food supply, early isolation of infected patients, sufficient hand hygiene) and their effectiveness.