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Updated: Mar 23, 2026
Detection and Genogrouping of Noroviruses from Children's Stools By Taqman One-step RT-PCR
Published on: July 22, 2012
Norovirus detection from sera of young children with acute norovirus gastroenteritis
Leena Huhti1, Maria Hemming-Harlo1, Timo Vesikari1
1Vaccine Research Center, School of Medicine, University of Tampere, Biokatu 10, 33520 Tampere, Finland.
Background:
Antigenemia and viremia are common in rotavirus infection but only few studies have shown norovirus (NoV) RNA in the blood circulation.
Objectives:
To detect NoV RNA from serum of NoV-infected children and study if NoV RNAemia correlates with clinical severity of acute gastroenteritis.
Study Design:
Serum specimens were collected from 176 Finnish children with acute NoV gastroenteritis. Semi-nested PCR was optimized to detect NoV capsid RNA from sera. NoV positive samples were further analyzed by sequencing.
Results:
NoV RNA was found in 11/176 (6.3%) of serum specimens. NoV GII.4 was found in 8 cases and GII.3, GII.6 and GII.7 in one case each. The genotypes detected in serum were identical to findings in stools in all cases. Most of the NoV RNA detections in serum were in young children less than 18 months of age. The clinical features of NoV serum-positive cases were not different from NoV serum-negative cases.
Conclusion:
NoV RNA in serum is an uncommon finding limited to young children.
