Member of the Caliciviridae family of positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses
Clinical Manifestations
Incubation period of 24 to 48 hours
Nausea and vomiting followed by profuse diarrhea
Illness lasts 12 to 72 hours
May have low-grade fevers
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.
