Norovirus gastroenteritis severity is associated with secretor status in young children from Vhembe District, South Africa.

Jean-Pierre KABUE, University of Venda

Authors: 1Jean-Pierre Kabue 2Ronewa Khumela, 3Marcia Terezinha Baroni de Moraes, 4Johan Nordgren, 1Afsatou Ndama Traore and 1Natasha Potgieter Affiliations 1Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Agriculture, University of Venda, Private Bag X5050, Thohoyandou 0950, South Africa 2Department of Medical Virology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria; Pretoria 0001, South Africa 3Laboratory of Comparative and Environmental Virology, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), Avenida Brasil, 4365-Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil 4Division of Molecular Virology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, 581 85 Linköping, Sweden

Molecular Epidemiology & Evolution

Background:
Norovirus is currently the leading causal agent of viral gastroenteritis in young children worldwide. However, limited data are available to determine the role of histo-blood group antigens (HBGA) on the severity of norovirus associated acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in young children.
Methods:
Between October 2019 and September 2021, norovirus associated AGE was investigated in two-hundred children under five years of age from Vhembe District, South Africa. The severity of norovirus associated AGE was evaluated using the Vesikari score system. Norovirus detection in the stool samples was performed by RT-qPCR followed by RT-PCR and sequencing to determine the genotypes. HBGA and secretor status were determined by phenotyping of saliva samples.
Results:
GII.4 Sydney 2012 [P31] were the predominant detected and successfully genotyped norovirus strains (59%, 19/32). Norovirus positive infections were predominantly associated with severe diarrhoea cases having high Vesikari score level (55%, 33/60) when compared to the non-severe diarrhoeal score (29.3%, 41/140; p