An outbreak of gastroenteritis during school trip caused by serotype G2 group A rotavirus

✍ Scribed by Toshiyuki Mikami; Toyoko Nakagomi; Rika Tsutsui; Kazuko Ishikawa; Yohko Onodera; Kokichi Arisawa; Osamu Nakagomi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 94 KB
• Volume: 73
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.20112

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Between May14 and 18, 2001, there was an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis involving 45 school children out of a total of 107 (aged 11–12 years) attending a 3‐day school trip. The epidemic curve characterized by a rapid onset and decline with a single peak incidence over a 5‐day period resembled the pattern typical of a food‐borne gastroenteritis outbreak. Epidemiological and virological investigations concluded, however, that this outbreak was caused by a single strain of serotype G2 group A rotavirus spreading to schoolmates from the primary case‐pupil who had already been ill at the start of the trip. Efficient person‐to‐person transmission was likely to have occurred due to prolonged and close contacts under the conditions typical of such school trips. This study emphasizes the importance of including group A rotavirus infection as a possible cause of gastroenteritis outbreaks even in older children and adults. J. Med. Virol. 73:460–464, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.