An investigation and analysis on an outbreak of norovirus diarrhea in a community in Dongguan City

Objective The investigation was conducted to get an insight into the characteristics of a diarrhea outbreak occurring in a community of Dongguan City.Methods Field epidemiological methods were used to investigate the epidemic situation including suspected transmitted factors.ELISA and RT-PCR were used for testing the samples from the cases and environment.Results A total of 173 individuals were involved in the epidemic that occurred from 11 to 18 of Feb,with the incidence rate being 2.40%.Norovirus nucleic acid were detected in the fecal specimen from 4 cases.The characteristics of the outbreak could be interpreted by a water-borne infectious disease.Conclusion The epidemic was a diarrhea outbreak caused by Norovirus with the contaminated water suspected to be the factor contributing to the transmission.