Abstract
Norovirus, the leading cause of non-bacterial acute gastroenteritis (AGE) worldwide, is constantly mutating. Continuous monitoring of the evolution of epidemic genotypes and emergence of novel genotypes is, therefore, necessary. This study determined the prevalence and clinical characteristics of norovirus strains in AGE in Guangzhou, China in 2019/2020 season. This study included children aged 2–60 months diagnosed with AGE in Guangzhou Women and Children Hospital, from August 2019 to January 2020. Norovirus was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction and clinical data were obtained. Genotyping and phylogenetic analyses were performed with partial gene sequence fragments located within the open reading frames 1 and 2. During the study period, 168 children (61.3% males) were confirmed as norovirus infectious AGE. The main symptoms were diarrhoea and vomiting and 38 patients (22.6%) had seizures. Norovirus was mainly prevalent in October and November, and GII.4 Sydney[P31] was the major genotype circulating in Guangzhou. The phylogenetic tree showed that the Guangzhou strains had high homology with the strains circulating in 2017–2019 worldwide. GII.4 Sydney was the main prevalent norovirus genotype in Guangzhou from August 2019 to January 2020, which had more severe diarrhoea than those of other genotypes. These findings provide a valuable reference for the prevention, control, and treatment of norovirus in the future.
Highlights
Norovirus is the leading cause of non-bacterial acute gastroenteritis (AGE) worldwide, causing approximately 18% of AGE and 212,000 deaths every year (Ahmed et al, 2014; Pires et al, 2015)
Because the recombination of norovirus mainly occurs at the ORF1 and ORF2 junctions, a dual typing based on both the RdRp of ORF1 gene (P type) and the VP1 of ORF2 gene of norovirus has been widely used since 2013 (Kroneman et al, 2013)
We reported the detailed clinical and epidemiological characteristics of young children with norovirus AGE in Guangzhou City in the 2019/2020 season
Summary
Norovirus is the leading cause of non-bacterial acute gastroenteritis (AGE) worldwide, causing approximately 18% of AGE and 212,000 deaths every year (Ahmed et al, 2014; Pires et al, 2015). Norovirus is divided into 10 genogroups (GI to GX, but only GI, GII and GIV can infect humans) based on the ORF2 gene and further divided into more than 40 genotypes (Chhabra et al, 2019). GII. can be further classified into eight strains due to its continuous variations and the novel GII. epidemic strains usually emerge every 2–3 years (Cannon et al, 2017; Wang et al 2019b). Continuous monitoring of the evolution of epidemic genotypes and the emergence of novel genotypes is necessary to effectively control norovirus transmission
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