PLoS ONE (Jan 2018)

Sentinel hospital-based surveillance for norovirus infection in children with gastroenteritis between 2015 and 2016 in Italy.

  • Simona De Grazia,
  • Gianvito Lanave,
  • Giovanni Maurizio Giammanco,
  • Maria Cristina Medici,
  • Flora De Conto,
  • Fabio Tummolo,
  • Adriana Calderaro,
  • Floriana Bonura,
  • Noemi Urone,
  • Anna Morea,
  • Daniela Loconsole,
  • Cristiana Catella,
  • Mariarosaria Marinaro,
  • Antonio Parisi,
  • Vito Martella,
  • Maria Chironna

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208184
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 12
p. e0208184

Abstract

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Noroviruses are one of the leading causes of gastro-enteric diseases worldwide in all age groups. Novel epidemic noroviruses with GII.P16 polymerase and GII.2 or GII.4 capsid type have emerged worldwide in late 2015 and in 2016. We performed a molecular epidemiological study of the noroviruses circulating in Italy to investigate the emergence of new norovirus strains. Sentinel hospital-based surveillance, in three different Italian regions, revealed increased prevalence of norovirus infection in children (<15 years) in 2016 (14.4% versus 9.8% in 2015) and the emergence of GII.P16 strains in late 2016, which accounted for 23.0% of norovirus infections. The majority of the strains with a GII.P16 polymerase showed a GII.2 capsid genotype (79.5%). Also, a marked circulation of strains with a GII.17 capsid (14.0%) was observed, chiefly in early 2016. The emergence and global spread of non-GII.4 noroviruses pose challenges for the development of vaccine strategies.