Abstract
We conducted a retrospective analysis of norovirus outbreaks reported to the National Public Health Emergency Event Surveillance System (PHEESS) in China from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2017. We reviewed all acute gastroenteritis outbreaks (n = 692) submitted to PHEESS to identify the frequency, seasonality, geographic distribution, setting, and transmission mode of outbreaks due to norovirus. A total of 616 norovirus outbreaks resulting in 30,848 cases were reported. Among these outbreaks, 571 (93%) occurred in school settings including 239 (39%) in primary schools, 136 (22%) in childcare facilities, and 121 (20%) in secondary schools. The majority of outbreaks (63%) were due to person-to-person transmission, followed by multiple modes of transmission (11%), foodborne (5%) and waterborne (3%) transmission. These findings highlight the importance of improving hand hygiene and environmental disinfection in high-risk settings. Developing a standard and quantitative outbreak reporting structure could improve the usefulness of PHEESS for monitoring norovirus outbreaks.
Highlights
Noroviruses are a leading cause of acute diarrheal illness globally and are associated with almost 50% of all-cause acute gastroenteritis (AGE) outbreaks [1,2]
We conducted a retrospective analysis of norovirus outbreaks reported to Public Health Emergency Event Surveillance System (PHEESS) in China from
We described the usefulness of PHEES for monitoring norovirus outbreaks according to the public health resources that were required to conduct this analysis as well as the completeness of key reporting variables
Summary
Noroviruses are a leading cause of acute diarrheal illness globally and are associated with almost 50% of all-cause acute gastroenteritis (AGE) outbreaks [1,2]. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that noroviruses cause 685 million cases of diarrhea and 212,489 deaths annually [3]. Due to the low infectious dose (18–2800 viral particles needed to infect a healthy adult) and prolonged duration (4 weeks on average; range of 13–56 days) of viral shedding, noroviruses are highly contagious and can result in large outbreaks [2,5,6,7,8]. Norovirus has been well described as a cause of epidemic AGE in all age Viruses 2019, 11, 342; doi:10.3390/v11040342 www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
