Emergence of norovirus GII-4/2008 variant and recombinant strains in Seoul, Korea

Abstract

Recently, the emergence of a new NoV GII-4 variant strain every 2 or 3 years has been reported. One hundred seventeen NoV GII strains were detected by RT-PCR in children with AGE between August 2008 and February 2010. In phylogenetic analyses, GII-4 and GII-3 were the most frequently detected strains. The detection rate of the 2008 variant was similar to that of the 2006b variant in the winter seasons of 2009 and 2010. This study shows a changing pattern of a predominant GII-4/2006b variant to the 2008 variant, as well as a novel NoV recombinant strain, GII-6/GII-14, in Korea.