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Human caliciviruses are highly infectious and co-circulate worldwide. They are responsible for many individual cases and extensive outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis. The ability of the viruses to survive in the environment facilitates the fecal-oral spread through water, food, aerosols, and person-to-person contact. Therefore, they are an important global public health problem. Despite the lack of a cell culture or animal model system to grow caliciviruses, great advances in our understanding of these pathogens, especially of the NLVs, have been made by using molecular methods. More and more information about the viral genome is being accumulated in data bases. This information will be used to develop sensitive molecular methods for the better understanding of the viral biology and epidemiology and will assist in developing strategies to prevent and control infections.