Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 28, 2016; 22(48): 10557-10565
Published online Dec 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i48.10557
Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of norovirus gastroenteritis among hospitalized children in Lebanon
Nada M Melhem, Hassan Zaraket, Khalil Kreidieh, Zeinab Ali, Moza Hammadi, Soha Ghanem, Farah Hajar, Amjad Haidar, Adlette Inati, Mariam Rajab, Hassan Fakhouri, Bassam Ghanem, Ghassan Baasiri, Ghassan Dbaibo
Nada M Melhem, Hassan Zaraket, Zeinab Ali, Moza Hammadi, Soha Ghanem, Farah Hajar, Amjad Haidar, Ghassan Dbaibo, Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon
Nada M Melhem, Khalil Kreidieh, Medical Laboratory Sciences Program, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon
Hassan Zaraket, Department of Experimental Pathology, Immunology and Microbiology, American University of Beirut, Faculty of Medicine, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon
Zeinab Ali, Moza Hammadi, Soha Ghanem, Farah Hajar, Ghassan Dbaibo, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon
Adlette Inati, Department of Pediatrics, Nini Hospital, Tripoli 1300, Lebanon
Mariam Rajab, Department of Pediatrics, Makassed General Hospital, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon
Hassan Fakhouri, Department of Pediatrics, Rafic Hariri University Hospital, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon
Bassam Ghanem, Department of Pediatrics, Nabatieh Governmental Hospital, Nabatieh 1700, Lebanon
Ghassan Baasiri, Department of Pediatrics, Hammoud Hospital, Saida 1600, Lebanon
Author contributions: Melhem NM designed the study, supervised the experimental work, performed the analysis and wrote the paper; Zaraket H contributed to the analysis; Kreidieh K performed the experiments and contributed to the analysis; Ali Z, Hammadi M, Ghanem S, Hajar F, Haidar A, Inati A, Rajab M, Fakhouri H, Ghanem B and Baasiri G helped in the recruitment of participants and approval of the final version of the article to be published; Dbaibo G critically read and revised the manuscript; Melhem NM and Dbaibo G are co-corresponding authors of this manuscript.
Supported by an investigator-initiated research grant from Merck Sharpe and Dohme (MSD); and University Review Board Grant, American University of Beirut.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the American University of Beirut.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: Not applicable.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Nada M Melhem, PhD, Associate Professor, Medical Laboratory Sciences Program, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, PO Box 11-0236 Riad El Solh, 325 Van Dyck Hall, Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon. melhemn@aub.edu.lb
Telephone: +961-1-3500004699 Fax: +961-1-744470
Received: June 28, 2016
Peer-review started: June 29, 2016
First decision: October 11, 2016
Revised: October 20, 2016
Accepted: October 27, 2016
Article in press: October 27, 2016
Published online: December 28, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: We report the results of a large study of norovirus (NoV)-associated gastroenteritis among children aged < 5 years in Lebanon. The majority of viral gastroenteritis cases were attributable to NoV GII.4, which is compatible with results reported worldwide. Our data support a peak incidence in July, while reports from other countries show peaks during the cold months. We report NoV A JB-15/KOR/2008 GII.4 Apeldoorn 2008-like variant strain circulating in 2011. This strain was replaced between 2012 and 2013 by a variant sharing homology with the Sydney/NSW0514/2012/AUS GII.4 Sydney 2012 and Sydney 2012/FRA GII.4 strains.