PubMed · 14533593
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2003. Debugging your travel plans.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14533593/
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Viruses of the Norovirus genus (Caliciviridae family) are a major cause of human gastroenteritis. In some viruses, recombination is an important evolutionary process and therefore we should try to discover the quantity and characteristics of such events in Noroviruses. In order to identify recombination events, multiple sequence alignments were assembled from publicly available strains, and were tested using RAT, a recently developed software tool. Strains identified by RAT as putative recombinants were tested further, using a phylogenetic approach, the LARD software, and a Monte Carlo method, to gain additional support for their status. The identification of two previously described recombinants, WUG1 and Snow Mountain, was made. Furthermore, three instances of hitherto unreported recombination implicating Norovirus strains MD 145-12, Gifu'96 and Saitama U4 were found, with good statistical support for the latter two of these cases. Lordsdale-like viruses were highlighted as major contributors to recombination events during Norovirus evolution. Finally, the relevance of recombinants to the worldwide transmission of Norovirus is discussed.
BACKGROUND: Noroviruses are common pathogens in gastro-enteritis outbreaks in humans worldwide. Noroviruses are genetically diverse group of viruses with multiple genogroups (GG) and genotypes. More recently, naturally occurring recombinant noroviruses were described. These viruses had a distinct polymerase gene sequence (designated GGIIb/Hilversum) and were disseminated through waterborne and food-borne transmission in Europe. OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to characterize these emerging recombinant noroviruses causing outbreaks of gastro-enteritis in Hungary. STUDY DESIGN: From January 2001 to May 2004, samples containing "GGIIb/Hilversum polymerase" (GGIIb-pol) were selected for analysis of the viral capsid region (ORF2) by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and sequencing. RESULTS: Thirty-four (14.4%) of 236 confirmed norovirus outbreaks were caused by the variant lineage with the GGIIb-pol. Four different recombinants were detected with capsids of Hu/NLV/GGII/Mexico/1989 (n=9, 43%), Hu/NLV/GGII/Snow Mountain/1976 (n=6, 28%), Hu/NLV/GGII/Hawaii/1971 (n=4, 19%) and Hu/NLV/GGII/Lordsdale/1993 (n=1, 5%). CONCLUSIONS: In Hungary, emerging recombinant noroviruses became the second most common norovirus variants-next to GGII-4/Lordsdale virus-causing epidemics of gastroenteritis in the last 4 years.
During the week after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, an estimated 240,000 persons, mostly from Louisiana, evacuated to Houston, Texas. On August 31, an estimated 24,000 evacuees were sheltered temporarily at facilities in Reliant Park, a sports and convention complex that includes Reliant Astrodome, Reliant Center, and Reliant Arena. All evacuees to these three facilities were provided with cots, bedding, food, water, and access to lavatories and showers. A medical facility was set up initially to provide emergency care to evacuees and subsequently to serve as a comprehensive outpatient clinic staffed largely by personnel from the Harris County Hospital District (HCHD), Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), and Texas Children's Hospital (TCH). On September 2, 2005, physicians and staff from Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services (HCPHES) noted a substantial number of adults and children with symptoms of acute gastroenteritis (defined as diarrhea and/or vomiting) at the medical clinic in Reliant Park. In collaboration with HCPHES, CDC and medical personnel of HCHD, BCM, and TCH conducted enhanced surveillance to improve identification of acute gastroenteritis, investigate the apparent outbreak, identify the infectious agent, and implement measures for its control. This report summarizes the preliminary epidemiologic data from this investigation and underscores the challenges to managing a large and rapidly spreading outbreak of norovirus in crowded evacuee settings.