Diagnosis of Norovirus outbreaks by commercial ELISA or RT-PCR

Erwin de Bruin*, Erwin Duizer, Harry Vennema, Marion P.G. Koopmans

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

103 Citations (Scopus)
19 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The IDEIA Norwalk-like virus (Dakocytomation Ltd., Ely, United Kingdom) and the Ridascreen Norwalk-like virus enzyme immunoassay (R-Biopharm AG, Darmstadt, Germany), were evaluated for the diagnosis of outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis. A panel of 158 fecal samples from 23 outbreaks, including confirmed rotavirus and astrovirus outbreaks, was used to determine the sensitivity and specificity of both ELISA kits relative to an RT-PCR protocol that was followed by Southern blot hybridization. Another panel consisted of 6 different genogroup I strains, 12 genogroup II strains and 1 genogroup IV strain and was used to determine the scope of the tests. Compared to the RT-PCR, sensitivities of 38% and 36% and specificities of 96% and 88% were found for the Dako kit and the Ridascreen kit, respectively. Two genogroup I strains, and one genogroup II strain were not detected by the Dako kit, while five genogroup I and five genogroup II strains were not detected by the Ridascreen kit. The sensitivity of both ELISA kits, and the scope of the Ridascreen are considered disappointing. However, the ELISA kits can be useful for a preliminary screening, provided that ELISA negative outbreaks will be re-tested by RT-PCR methods.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)259-264
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Virological Methods
Volume137
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2006
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the European Commission, DG Research Quality of Life Program, Fifth Framework (QLK1-CT-1999-00594), Sixth Framework (SP22-CT-2004-502571) and DG SANCO (2003213).

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