A foodborne acute gastroenteritis outbreak caused by GII.P16-GII.2 norovirus in a boarding high school, Beijing, China: a case-control study.

OBJECTIVE

In December 2017, an acute gastroenteritis outbreak involving 61 students occurred in a boarding high school in Beijing, China. We conducted an outbreak investigation immediately in order to determine the cause of this outbreak and provide effective control measures.

RESULTS

The laboratory inspection showed that this outbreak was caused by GII.P16-GII.2 norovirus. Risk factor analysis indicated that the lunch provided by Cafeteria 1 on Dec 12 might be the risk factor of the outbreak with an odds ratio (OR) of 3.800 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.089-13.258). Additionally, a tray line server of Cafeteria 1 was found to have gastro-enteral symptoms recently. Based on the clinical symptoms and epidemiology investigation, the symptomatic server was considered to be the possible source of infection.