[Outbreak of human calicivirus infection in a hospital department]

Human caliciviruses (HuCV)--such as Norwalk-like and Sapporo-like viruses--members of the family Caliciviridae, are a major cause of acute non-bacterial gastroenteritis in persons of all ages worldwide. They are important pathogens in food- and waterborne diseases in which the transmission can often be traced to fecally contaminated water or foods, and spread by person-to-person contact, vomitus or airborne droplets. HuCV-associated outbreaks involving large numbers of people usually occur in settings where people congregate. Between May 9 and 24, 2000, an outbreak of acute, mild, nonbacterial gastroenteritis occurred in woman, chronic psychiatric ward of a county hospital where 35 of 143 persons (24.5%) were registered with characteristic symptoms. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay was used for virus detection. HuCV was found in stool samples in 12 of 17 (70.6%) ill persons. This is the first HuCV-associated hospital outbreak of gastroenteritis in Hungary where HuCV was successfully detected by molecular method and its etiologic role was also supported by epidemiologic investigation.