Abstract
BACKGROUND: An outbreak of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) was reported from one of the kindergartens in the district of Perak Tengah on 10th January 2019. This was the second outbreak caused by Norovirus recorded in the district. METHODS: Active and passive case detection, environmental inspection at school, inspection and rating of food premise and food handles were carried out. Sampling of water sources, food (proxy) and clinical sample were taken for confirmatory. RESULTS: In total 14 cases of AGE (11 school children and three family members) were affected between 7th and 11th January 2019 out of 64 people exposed. The first onset was recorded on 7th January lead to peak of an outbreak on 9th and 10th January and end on 11th January 2019. The attack rate was 22% with majority presentation was upper gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting (100.0%), abdominal pain (100.0%), fever (79.0%), diarrhoea (50.0%) and giddiness (14.3%). Clinical sample for rectal swab (PCR) was positive for Norovirus. CONCLUSION: Norovirus has high survival rate in environment and easily infected other people through direct contact with clinical secretion or indirect contact through surfaces and foods. Environmental factor such as high density and close contact between children at school facilitate the transmission of disease. Early identification of cases and notification of disease contribute to more effective and successful prevention and control measures.
Links
BibTeX (Download)
@proceedings{APCPH-2019-121,
title = {An Outbreak of Norovirus in Kindergarten in District of Perak Tengah, Perak},
author = {Ruzita Mustaffa},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-07-22},
urldate = {2019-07-22},
journal = {6th Asia-Pacific Conference on Public Health 2019 Proceedings},
issue = {6},
abstract = {BACKGROUND: An outbreak of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) was reported from one of the kindergartens in the district of Perak Tengah on 10th January 2019. This was the second outbreak caused by Norovirus recorded in the district. METHODS: Active and passive case detection, environmental inspection at school, inspection and rating of food premise and food handles were carried out. Sampling of water sources, food (proxy) and clinical sample were taken for confirmatory. RESULTS: In total 14 cases of AGE (11 school children and three family members) were affected between 7th and 11th January 2019 out of 64 people exposed. The first onset was recorded on 7th January lead to peak of an outbreak on 9th and 10th January and end on 11th January 2019. The attack rate was 22% with majority presentation was upper gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting (100.0%), abdominal pain (100.0%), fever (79.0%), diarrhoea (50.0%) and giddiness (14.3%). Clinical sample for rectal swab (PCR) was positive for Norovirus. CONCLUSION: Norovirus has high survival rate in environment and easily infected other people through direct contact with clinical secretion or indirect contact through surfaces and foods. Environmental factor such as high density and close contact between children at school facilitate the transmission of disease. Early identification of cases and notification of disease contribute to more effective and successful prevention and control measures.},
note = {Type: POSTER PRESENTATION; Organisation: Perak Tengah District Health Office, Perak},
keywords = {apcph2019, Gastroenteritis, Kindergarten, Norovirus, outbreak, School},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}