Journal List > J Bacteriol Virol > v.49(2) > 1129473

Lee, Kim, Park, Park, Nam, Choi, and Park: An Norovirus Outbreak at a Local Festival in Chungnam Korea

Abstract

Noroviruses (NoV) are the major viral pathogen causing epidemic acute gastroenteritis and outbreaks of foodborne and waterborne illness. During the local festival in Chungnam province, group food poisoning occurred outbreak by NoV infections in Jan 2019. In this study, epidemiological analysis and molecular characterization were conducted such as genotyping, phylogeny. The prevalent genotypes of food poisoning events were NoV GII.3 and GII.17, and NoV GII.3 and GII.17 isolates of this study were completely matched in nucleotide sequence comparison of capsid gene region, respectively. In underground water and stream water, various multiple genotypes of noroviruses were detected including NoV GII.3, GII.8 and GI.4 in aquatic environment of the local festival site. Among 32 worker samples, various NoVs of five genotypes (GI.7, GI.8, GII.3, GII.8, GII.17) were detected in 12 samples and expected to causing NoV contaminated by exposure to groundwater. NoV genotype GII.3, which was detected from groundwater 2, was completely consistent with that of patients and workers. Therefore, groundwater within the local festival site could be main cause of food poisoning event. Because NoV outbreaks are caused by fecal to oral transmission, proper management of sewage purification facilities, groundwater and sanitary toilets is required for many visitors, and efforts are needed to maintain clean environment.

Figures and Tables

Figure 1

Phylogenetic analysis of isolates in this study with reference strains for 254bp of capsid gene of norovirus GII.3

jbv-49-81-g001
Figure 2

Phylogenetic analysis of isolates in this study with reference strains 255bp of capsid gene of for norovirus GII.17

jbv-49-81-g002
Table 1

Norovirus GII.3 and GII.17 strains isolated in this study

jbv-49-81-i001
Table 2

Exposed persons and patients with symptoms for norovirus infection

jbv-49-81-i002
Table 3

Detection and distribution of genotypes of noroviruses in fecal samples of patients

jbv-49-81-i003
Table 4

Detection and genotype distribution of noroviruses in fecal samples of food-service employees

jbv-49-81-i004
Table 5

Detection and genotype distribution of noroviruses for groundwater, stream water and kitchen utensils

jbv-49-81-i005

Notes

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

References

1. Lee RM, Lessler J, Lee RA, Rudolph KE, Reich NG, Perl TM, et al. Incubation periods of viral gastroenteritis: a systematic review. BMC Infect Dis. 2013; 13:446.
crossref
2. Kapikian AZ, Wyatt RG, Dolin R, Thornhill TS, Kalica AR, Chanock RM. Visualization by immune electron microscopy of a 27-nm particle associated with acute infectious nonbacterial gastroenteritis. J Virol. 1972; 10:1075–1081.
crossref
3. Kaplan JE, Gary GW, Baron RC, Singh N, Schonberger LB, Feldman R, et al. Epidemiology of Norwalk gastroenteritis and the role of Norwalk virus in outbreaks of acute nonbacterial gastroenteritis. Ann Intern Med. 1982; 96:756–761.
crossref
4. Gallimore CI, Cubitt D, du Plessis N, Gray JJ. Asymptomatic and symptomatic excretion of noroviruses during a hospital outbreak of gastroenteritis. J Clin Microbiol. 2004; 42:2271–2274.
crossref
5. Vinjé J, Hamidjaja RA, Sobsey MD. Development and application of a capsid VP1 (region D) based reverse transcription PCR assay for genotyping of genogroup I and II noroviruses. J Virol Methods. 2004; 116:109–117.
crossref
6. Bruggink LD, Dunbar NL, Catton MG, Marshall JA. Norovirus genotype diversity associated with gastroenteritis outbreaks in Victoria in 2013. Commun Dis Intell Q Rep. 2015; 39:E34–E41.
7. Rahman M, Rahman R, Nahar S, Hossain S, Ahmed S, Golam Faruque AS, et al. Norovirus diarrhea in Bangladesh, 2010-2014: prevalence, clinical features, and genotypes. J Med Virol. 2016; 88:1742–1750.
crossref
8. Kim MS, Koo ES, Choi YS, Kim JY, Yoo CH, Yoon HJ, et al. Distribution of human norovirus in the coastal waters of South Korea. PLoS One. 2016; 11:e0163800.
crossref
9. Lee SG, Jheong WH, Suh CI, Kim SH, Lee JB, Jeong YS, et al. Nationwide groundwater surveillance of noroviruses in South Korea, 2008. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2011; 77:1466–1474.
crossref
10. Lee SG, Cho HG, Paik SY. Molecular epidemiology of norovirus in South Korea. BMB Rep. 2015; 48:61–67.
crossref
11. Lee H, Kim M, Lee JE, Lim M, kim M, Kim JM, et al. Investigation of norovirus occurrence in groundwater in metropolitan Seoul, Korea. Sci Total Environ. 2011; 409:2078–2084.
crossref
12. Lee BR, Lee SG, Park JH, Kim KY, Ryu SR, Rhee OJ, et al. Norovirus contamination levels in ground water treatment systems used for food-catering facilities in South Korea. Viruses. 2013; 5:1646–1654.
crossref
13. Thompson JD, Higgins DG, Gibson TJ. Clustal W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Res. 1994; 22:4673–4680.
crossref
14. Saitou N, Nei M. The neighbor-joining method: a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. Mol Biol Evol. 1987; 4:406–425.
15. Ho EC, Cheng PK, Lau AW, Wong AH, Lim WW. Atypical norovirus epidemic in Hong Kong during summer of 2006 caused by a new genogroup II/4 variant. J Clin Microbiol. 2007; 45:2205–2211.
crossref
16. Kim SH, Cheon DS, Kim JH, Lee DH, Jheong WH, Heo YJ, et al. Outbreaks of gastroenteritis that occurred during school excursions in Korea were associated with several waterborne strains of norovirus. J Clin Microbiol. 2005; 43:4836–4839.
crossref
17. Ham H, Oh S, Seung H, Jang J, Han C. Human norovirus genogroups detected from acute gastroenteritis patients in seoul from May 2013 to April 2015. J Bacteriol Virol. 2015; 45:376–381.
crossref
18. Lee JS, Joo IS, Ju SY, Jeong MH, Song YH, Kwak HS. Research on the contamination levels of norovirus in food facilities using groundwater in South Korea, 2015-2016. Int J Food Microbiol. 2018; 280:35–40.
crossref
TOOLS
Similar articles