A gastroenteritis outbreak due to Norovirus infection in Xanthi, Northern Greece: management and public health consequences

A gastroenteritis outbreak was observed in the town of Xanthi on Jan 28, 2005. A total of 709 patients (350 males and 359 females, mean age 23.8 +/- 19.95 years) visited the local hospital over a period of two weeks with symptoms of fever (22.3%), abdominal pain (78.6%), nausea (85.5%), vomiting (67...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of gastrointestinal and liver diseases : JGLD Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 27 - 30
Main Authors:	Papadopoulos, Vassilios P, Vlachos, Odysseas, Isidoriou, Efterpi, Kasmeridis, Charalambos, Pappa, Zoi, Goutzouvelidis, Aggelos, Filippou, Filippos
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Romania 01-03-2006
Subjects:	Adolescent Adult Aged Aged, 80 and over Caliciviridae Infections - epidemiology Caliciviridae Infections - microbiology Caliciviridae Infections - prevention & control Child Child, Preschool Contact Tracing Disease Outbreaks - prevention & control Female Gastroenteritis - epidemiology Gastroenteritis - microbiology Gastroenteritis - prevention & control Greece - epidemiology Humans Infant Infant, Newborn Male Middle Aged Norovirus Water Microbiology Greece
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	A gastroenteritis outbreak was observed in the town of Xanthi on Jan 28, 2005. A total of 709 patients (350 males and 359 females, mean age 23.8 +/- 19.95 years) visited the local hospital over a period of two weeks with symptoms of fever (22.3%), abdominal pain (78.6%), nausea (85.5%), vomiting (67.1%) and diarrhea (72.5%). PCR for Norovirus in randomly selected stool specimens examined was positive in all cases (8/8). No other pathogen was revealed. As 85.1% of the primary affected individuals had been using water from a single well (supplying approximately 40% of the 34,889 inhabitants), and water specimens from this well were found to carry a high bacterial load, the waterborne transmission of Norovirus was the main suspected cause of the outbreak. People were advised to consume bottled water and to wash their hands carefully especially after toilet use until the remission of the outbreak. Additionally, more chloride was added to the suspected well (10 ppm or 10 mg/l). Fourteen days later, the outbreak waned and all measures were withdrawn.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1841-8724