Research Fund Secretariat - Detail of Approved Project (Reference No.: CU-15-C2)

Detail of Approved Project (Reference No.: CU-15-C2)

Fund	:	Commissioned Programmes on Control of Infectious Diseases (Phase III) (CID-Phase III)
Project Status	:	Current
Reference No.	:	CU-15-C2
Project Title	:	Epidemiological and clinical implications of genomic variability of norovirus
Research Activity Code	:
Health Category	:
Applicant(s)	:	Dr Martin CHAN Chi-wai(1)
Affiliation(s)	:	The Chinese University of Hong Kong(1)
Approved Amount (HK$)	:
Abstract	:	Background: Norovirus is the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis worldwide. While generally regarded as mild infections in otherwise healthy individuals, norovirus gastroenteritis has been estimated to result in 56,000—70,000 hospitalizations per year in the United States, suggesting the need for a vaccine. However, the broad genetic diversity of norovirus complicates selection of candidate vaccine strain(s). Therefore, it is of paramount importance to evaluate the prevalence of different circulating norovirus genotypes. More importantly, the clinical association of different norovirus genotypes is largely unknown. Hypothesis: Multiple norovirus genotypes co-circulate in our community and their infections show different epidemiological and clinical characteristics. Objectives: (1) To establish a continuous and systematic hospital-based surveillance system to monitor norovirus genotype distribution in patients of acute gastroenteritis; (2) to delineate the association of norovirus genotypes (GII.4 versus non-GII.4) with virologic and clinical characteristics of acute gastroenteritis, and (3) to characterize the genomic sequence variation of norovirus and analyze its correlation with hospital admission incidence. Study design: This is a 3-year hospital-based surveillance study. Approximately 350—400 routine norovirus-positive diagnostic stool specimens received by our hospital will be studied. Laboratory investigations include noroviral load quantification by quantitative RT-PCR assay and norovirus genotyping by phylogenetic analysis. Correlation of virus genotypes with clinical and virological features will be analyzed statistically. Potential impact: Our findings will provide a detailed picture of local circulating norovirus genotype distribution and associated clinical features. They may offer important insights into answering the question of whether a monovalent or multivalent norovirus vaccine is needed
Keywords	:	Norovirus, epidemiology, age group, virus burden
Instruments	:
Remarks	:

Dissemination Report	:
Final Report	:

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