Noroviruses as an etiological factor of acute enteric infections in Novosibirsk infants

A total of 1007 fecal samples from the infants admitted to the unit of enteric infections, Children's City Clinical Hospital Three, Novosibirsk, were tested for genotypes 1 and 2 noroviruses in January to December 2006. It was ascertained that 12.4% of the samples contained noroviruses, most of the detected viruses being genotype 2 noroviruses (94.4%); noroviruses along with other viral pathogens were found in 7.2% of the samples. There was an age-related association - 70% of the noroviruses were isolated from infants aged 6 to 18 months. There was a morbidity rise in December 2006 when noroviruses were identified in 39% of the samples, which allowed them to hold the lead, by outstripping the traditionally more common rotavirus infection. Twenty norovirus isolates of noroviruses were tested for nucleotide sequence in the 5'-region of the gene encoding the capsid protein. The study isolates were shown to be very close and different in nucleotide sequence by not more than 4.5%.