0000000000454548
AUTHOR
Kjell-olof Hedlund
Data quality of 5 years of central norovirus outbreak reporting in the European Network for food-borne viruses
ABSTRACT Background The food-borne viruses in Europe (FBVE) network database was established in 1999 to monitor trends in outbreaks of gastroenteritisdue to noroviruses (NoVs), to identify major transmission routes of NoV infections within and between participating countries and to detectdiffuse international food-borne outbreaks.Methods We reviewed the total of 9430 NoVoutbreak reports from 13 countries with date of onset between 1 January 2002 and 1 January2007 for representativeness, completeness and timeliness against these objectives.Results Rates of reporting ranged from a yearly average of 1.8 in 2003 to 11.6 in 2006. Completeness of reporting of an agreed minimumdataset improved ove…
Analysis of integrated virological and epidemiological reports of norovirus outbreaks collected within the Foodborne Viruses in Europe network from 1 July 2001 to 30 June 2006.
ABSTRACT The Foodborne Viruses in Europe network has developed integrated epidemiological and virological outbreak reporting with aggregation and sharing of data through a joint database. We analyzed data from reported outbreaks of norovirus (NoV)-caused gastroenteritis from 13 European countries (July 2001 to July 2006) for trends in time and indications of different epidemiology of genotypes and variants. Of the 13 countries participating in this surveillance network, 11 were capable of collecting integrated epidemiological and virological surveillance data and 10 countries reported outbreaks throughout the entire period. Large differences in the numbers and rates of reported outbreaks pe…
Quasispecies dynamics and molecular evolution of human norovirus capsid P region during chronic infection.
In this novel study, we have for the first time identified evolutionarily conserved capsid residues in an individual chronically infected with norovirus (GGII.3). From 2000 to 2003, a total of 147 P1-1 and P2 capsid sequences were sequenced and investigated for evolutionarily conserved and functionally important residues by the evolutionary trace (ET) algorithm. The ET algorithm revealed more absolutely conserved residues (ACR) in the P1-1 domain (47/53, 88 %) as compared with the P2 domain (86/133, 64 %). The capsid P1-1 and P2 domains evolved in time-dependent manner, with a distinct break point observed between autumn/winter of year 2000 (isolates P1, P3 and P5) and spring to autumn of y…