1. Characterizing Norovirus Transmission from Outbreak Data, United States.
- Author
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Steele MK, Wikswo ME, Hall AJ, Koelle K, Handel A, Levy K, Waller LA, and Lopman BA
- Subjects
- Disease Outbreaks, Humans, Seasons, United States epidemiology, Caliciviridae Infections epidemiology, Foodborne Diseases epidemiology, Gastroenteritis epidemiology, Norovirus
- Abstract
Norovirus is the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis outbreaks in the United States. We estimated the basic (R
0 ) and effective (Re ) reproduction numbers for 7,094 norovirus outbreaks reported to the National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS) during 2009-2017 and used regression models to assess whether transmission varied by outbreak setting. The median R0 was 2.75 (interquartile range [IQR] 2.38-3.65), and median Re was 1.29 (IQR 1.12-1.74). Long-term care and assisted living facilities had an R0 of 3.35 (95% CI 3.26-3.45), but R0 did not differ substantially for outbreaks in other settings, except for outbreaks in schools, colleges, and universities, which had an R0 of 2.92 (95% CI 2.82-3.03). Seasonally, R0 was lowest (3.11 [95% CI 2.97-3.25]) in summer and peaked in fall and winter. Overall, we saw little variability in transmission across different outbreaks settings in the United States.- Published
- 2020
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