Infect Chemother.  2019 Jun;51(2):171-176. 10.3947/ic.2019.51.2.171.

Norovirus Outbreak in a Kindergarten: Human to Human Transmission among Children

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Epidemiology and Health Informatics, Graduate School of Public Health, Korea University, Seoul, Korea. gentryu@onehealth.or.kr
  • 2Division of Infectious Disease Control, Gyeonggi Provincial Government, Suwon, Korea.
  • 3WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control, School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
  • 4Team of Infectious Disease Control, Sungnam City's Department of Public Health, Sungnam, Korea.

Abstract

An outbreak of acute gastroenteritis was reported from a kindergarten on January 5, 2018 and investigation was conducted. A case was defined as a kindergartener presented with vomiting or diarrhea twice a day between January 1 and January 5, 2018. All kindergarteners were interviewed to identify the factor associated with case development. Fifteen (31.3%) children of a total of 48 were identified as cases, and four were confirmed to be Group II, Norovirus positive. In our study, based on the pattern of epidemic curve and different attack rate by classroom in a kindergarten, Norovirus was likely transmitted from human to human.

Keyword

Norovirus; Outbreak; Infection control; Transmission

MeSH Terms

Child*
Diarrhea
Gastroenteritis
Humans*
Infection Control
Norovirus*
Vomiting

Figure

  • Figure 1 Floor plan of the kindergarten.

  • Figure 2 Epidemic curve of the Group II Norovirus outbreak in the kindergarten between January 3, 2018 and January 4, 2018, by date of symptom appearance.


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