Relative Frequency of Norovirus Infection in Children Suffering From Gastroenteritis and Referred to Aboozar Hospital, Ahvaz, Iran

Background: noroviruses belong to the norovirus genus in the caliciviridae family. noroviruses are the most common causes of gastroenteritis and have a great impact on public health. they have been identified as a common cause of acute gastroenteritis in children. objectives: the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of norovirus in children suffering from gastroenteritis. patients and methods: fecal samples (n = 143) were collected from children under 5 years of age who were suffering from gastroenteritis. all the children were referred to ahvaz aboo- zar hospital, located in southwestern iran. norovirus rna was extracted by trizol, and rna was detected using nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (nested- rt-pcr). results: norovirus infection was detected in 9 of the 143 collected samples (6.3%). all positive samples belonged to genogroup ii. five positive samples were obtained from male patients and 4 were obtained from female patients. most of the positive cases were from patients between 3 and 5 yars of age (n = 5, 56%). there was no relationship between gender and virus prevalence. the rate of infection peaked in winter (n =6, 66.9%), and we did not detect any positive cases in summer. conclusions: the prevalence of this virus in ahvaz is similar to that reported by other re- searchers. because this virus is transmitted by contaminated food or water, we recommend adult education and improved personal hygiene to reduce the incidence of norovirus infection in children. this study improves our epidemiological knowledge of the prevalence of this virus in ahvaz and iran.