Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 May 1;41(5):e203-e207.
doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000003493.

Sapovirus, Norovirus and Rotavirus Detections in Stool Samples of Hospitalized Finnish Children With and Without Acute Gastroenteritis

Oskari Pitkänen  1 , Jukka Markkula  1   2 , Maria Hemming-Harlo  2   3
Affiliations

Sapovirus, Norovirus and Rotavirus Detections in Stool Samples of Hospitalized Finnish Children With and Without Acute Gastroenteritis

Oskari Pitkänen et al. Pediatr Infect Dis J. .

Abstract

Background: Sapovirus, norovirus and rotavirus are major causes of childhood acute gastroenteritis (AGE) globally. Asymptomatic infections of these viruses have not been extensively studied.

Aim: To examine the prevalence and the genetic variations of sapovirus, norovirus and rotavirus in children with and without symptoms of AGE.

Methods: We collected 999 stool samples from children under 16 years old from September 2009 to August 2011 at Tampere University Hospital, Finland. In total 442 children (44%) had symptoms of AGE and 557 patients (56%) had acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI) only. Samples were examined for sapovirus, norovirus and rotavirus using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and the positive amplicons were sequenced.

Results: Totally 54% and 14% of the patients in AGE and ARTI groups, respectively, tested positive. All viruses were more frequently detected in AGE patients than in ARTI patients (norovirus, 25% vs. 7.2%, respectively; rotavirus, 24% vs. 6.1%; sapovirus, 5.2% vs. 1.4%). In ARTI patients, the cases were seen most frequently during the first two years of life. Norovirus was the most detected pathogen in both groups with genogroup GII covering ≥97% of norovirus strains. Sapovirus was mostly detected in children under 18 months old without predominating genotype. Rotavirus was often detected after recent rotavirus vaccination and 18% and 88% of the strains were rotavirus vaccine-derived in AGE and ARTI groups, respectively.

Conclusions: We showed that the most common viruses causing gastroenteritis in children may be found in the stools of an asymptomatic carrier which may function as a potential reservoir for AGE.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

M.H-H has received speaker’s fees or research support from MSD Finland and is a deputy member of the Finnish National Advisory Committee on Vaccines. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

FIGURE 1.
FIGURE 1.
Distribution of the detected gastroenteritis virus positive cases by age and symptoms.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Platts-Mills JA, Liu J, Rogawski ET, et al. . Use of quantitative molecular diagnostic methods to assess the aetiology, burden, and clinical characteristics of diarrhoea in children in low-resource settings: a reanalysis of the MAL-ED cohort study. Lancet Glob Health. 2018;6:e1309–e13. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Estes MK, Kapikian AZ. Rotaviruses. Knipe DM, Howley PM. In: Fields Virology. 5th Edition ed. United States: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2007; pp. 1917–1974.
    1. Oka T, Wang Q, Katayama K, et al. . Comprehensive review of human sapoviruses. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2015;28:32–53. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Patel MM, Hall AJ, Vinjé J, et al. . Noroviruses: A comprehensive review. J Clin Virol. 2009;44:1–8. - PubMed
    1. Lee RM, Lessler J, Lee RA, et al. . Incubation periods of viral gastroenteritis: a systematic review. BMC Infect Dis. 2013;13:446,2334-13-446. - PMC - PubMed