Norovirus
From IDWiki
Background
Microbiology
- Member of the Caliciviridae family of positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses
Epidemiology
- Most common cause of gastroenteritis worldwide
- More common during winder months
- Antibodies from prior infection do not indicate immunity from future infection
Clinical Manifestations
- Incubation period of 24 to 48 hours
- Causes viral gastroenteritis, with nausea and vomiting followed by profuse watery diarrhea
- Illness lasts 12 to 72 hours
- May have low-grade fevers
Diagnosis
- Usually diagnosed clinically
- Antigen detection with enzyme immunoassays
- Stool PCR, which has higher sensitivity and specificity
Management
- Supportive care and appropriate isolation and outbreak management
Outbreak Management
Kaplan criteria
- Identify outbreaks of gastroenteritis caused by norovirus without specific viral testing1
- The criteria are:
- Vomiting in more than half of affected patients
- Mean or median incubation period between 24 and 48 hours
- Mean or median duration of illness between 12 and 60 hours
- No bacterial pathogen identified in stool
References
- ^ R. M. Turcios, M.-A. Widdowson, A. C. Sulka, P. S. Mead, R. I. Glass. Reevaluation of Epidemiological Criteria for Identifying Outbreaks of Acute Gastroenteritis Due to Norovirus: United States, 1998-2000. Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2006;42(7):964-969. doi:10.1086/500940.
