A large-scale gastroenteritis outbreak associated with Norovirus in nursing homes

An increase in gastroenteritis outbreaks due to Norovirus has been reported worldwide. We investigated a large-scale outbreak affecting 246 residents and 33 staff members in six nursing homes in the Tel-Aviv district, Israel, during 3 weeks in 2002. Person-to-person spread was noticed in all nursing...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Epidemiology and infection 2005-02, Vol.133 (1), p.35-40
Main Authors: CALDERON-MARGALIT, R., SHEFFER, R., HALPERIN, T., ORR, N., COHEN, D., SHOHAT, T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Biological and medical sciences
Caliciviridae Infections - epidemiology
Departments
Disease Outbreaks
Disease transmission
Epidemics
Epidemiology
Fatalities
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gastroenteritis
Gastroenteritis - virology
Hospitalization
Humans
Israel - epidemiology
Male
Microbiology
Middle Aged
Mortality
Norovirus
Norovirus - isolation & purification
Nursing Homes
Older adults
Public health
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
Social interaction
Specimens
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Summary:An increase in gastroenteritis outbreaks due to Norovirus has been reported worldwide. We investigated a large-scale outbreak affecting 246 residents and 33 staff members in six nursing homes in the Tel-Aviv district, Israel, during 3 weeks in 2002. Person-to-person spread was noticed in all nursing homes. The spread of disease could not be attributed to social interactions. Among the elderly residents, the hospitalization rate was 10·2% and the case-fatality rate was 2·0%. Bacteriological cultures were negative. Overall, 7 out of 15 stool specimens were positive for Norovirus by RT–PCR. All were sequenced and found to be 90% identical. The characteristics of this outbreak and the RT–PCR results suggest that illness was caused by Norovirus. Due to the high case-fatality rate of Norovirus gastroenteritis, there should be a high index of suspicion when encountering a gastroenteritis outbreak among the elderly. This will enable prompt action to stop the spread of illness.
ISSN:0950-2688
1469-4409
DOI:10.1017/S0950268804003115