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Lessons learned from a prolonged norovirus GII.P16-GII.4 Sydney 2012 variant outbreak in a long-term care facility in Portugal, 2017

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2019

Emma Sáez-López ,
Rodrigo Marques ,
Nuno Rodrigues ,
Mónica Oleastro ,
Helena Andrade ,
Ricardo Mexía  and
Rita de Sousa Open the ORCID record for Rita de Sousa [Opens in a new window]
Emma Sáez-López
Affiliation:
Department of Infectious Diseases, National Health Institute Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Instituto Nacional de Saúde, INSA, Lisbon, Portugal European Public Health Microbiology Training (EUPHEM), European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden
Rodrigo Marques
Affiliation:
Public Health Unit of ACES South West, Regional Health Administration of Lisbon and Tagus Valley (ARSLVT), Torres Vedras, Portugal
Nuno Rodrigues
Affiliation:
Public Health Unit of ACES South West, Regional Health Administration of Lisbon and Tagus Valley (ARSLVT), Torres Vedras, Portugal
Mónica Oleastro
Affiliation:
Department of Infectious Diseases, National Health Institute Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Instituto Nacional de Saúde, INSA, Lisbon, Portugal
Helena Andrade
Affiliation:
Public Health Unit of ACES South West, Regional Health Administration of Lisbon and Tagus Valley (ARSLVT), Torres Vedras, Portugal
Ricardo Mexía
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, National Health Institute Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Instituto Nacional de Saúde, INSA, Lisbon, Portugal
Rita de Sousa*
Affiliation:
Department of Infectious Diseases, National Health Institute Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Instituto Nacional de Saúde, INSA, Lisbon, Portugal
*
Author for correspondence: Rita de Sousa, National Health Institute Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Instituto Nacional de Saúde, INSA, Avenida Padre Cruz, 1649-016 Lisboa, Portugal. Email: rita.sousa@insa.min-saude.pt.
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Abstract

Objective:

To investigate an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis caused by norovirus (NoV) in a long-term care facility (LTCF) in Portugal to describe and estimate its extent, and we implemented control measures.

Design:

Outbreak investigation.

Methods:

Probable cases were residents or staff members in the LTCF with at least 1 of the following symptoms: (1) diarrhea, (2) vomiting, (3) nausea, and/or (4) abdominal pain between October 31 and December 8, 2017. Confirmed cases were probable cases with positive NoV infection detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and the same genotype in stool specimens.

Results:

The outbreak was caused by NoV GII.P16-GII.4 Sydney 2012 variant and affected 146 people. The highest illness rates were observed in residents (97 of 335, 29%) and nurses (16 of 83, 19%). All 11 resident wards were affected. Data on cases and their working or living areas suggest that movement between wards facilitated the transmission of NoV, likely from person to person.

Conclusions:

The delay in the identification of the causative agent, a lack of restrictions of resident and staff movement between wards, and ineffective initial deep-cleaning procedures resulted an outbreak that continued for >1 month. The outbreak ended only after implementation of strict control measures. Recommendations for controlling future NoV outbreaks in LTCFs include emphasizing the need to control resident’s movements and to restrict visitors, timely and effective environmental cleaning and disinfection, leave of absence for ill staff, and encouraging effective hand hygiene.

Type
Original Article
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 40 , Issue 10 , October 2019 , pp. 1164 - 1169
Copyright
© 2019 by The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. All rights reserved. 

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Footnotes

a

Authors of equal contribution.

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