Clinical Microbiology: Open Access

Molecular epidemiology of waterborne viruses in South Korea

6^th Clinical Microbiology Conference

October 20-22, 2016 Rome, Italy

Lae-Hyung Kang, Sung-Geun Lee, Hyun Kim and Soon-Young Paik

The Catholic University of Korea, South Korea

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Clin Microbiol

Abstract:

Norovirus is a major cause of viral gastroenteritis and a common cause of food-borne and waterborne outbreaks. Norovirus outbreaks are responsible for economic losses, most notably to the public health and food industry field. Norovirus has characteristics such as low infectious dose, prolonged shedding period, strong stability, great diversity and frequent genome mutations. Besides these characteristics, they are known for rapid and extensive spread in closed settings such as hospitals, hotels and schools. Norovirus is well known as a major agent of food-poisoning in diverse settings in South Korea. For these reasons, nationwide surveillance for Norovirus is active in both clinical and environmental settings in South Korea. Recent studies have reported the emergence of variants and novel recombinants of Norovirus. In this review, we summarized studies on the molecular epidemiology and nationwide surveillance of Norovirus in South Korea. This review will provide information for vaccine development and prediction of new emerging variants of Norovirus in South Korea.

Biography :

Lae-Hyung Kang is currently a Doctoral candidate from Catholic University School of Medicine. He has completed his Master’s degree from Catholic University School of Medicine.

Email: klh0703@naver.com