The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported yesterday that 55 faculty members of a college in Taipei County had been diagnosed with Sapovirus infections, the first known cases of such infections in Taiwan.
Sapoviruses are caliciviruses which, together with the noroviruses, are the leading causes of acute viral gastroenteritis in humans. The virus is named after Sapporo, Japan, where the virus was first recognized during an outbreak at an orphanage. It generally causes only mild gastroenteritis in young children.
CDC officials said that the virus is hard to diagnose and that the center only became capable of testing for the virus after cooperating last year with Japan's National Epidemiological Surveillance of Infectious Diseases.
The officials said they were not ruling out the possibility that others might have been infected with the virus at an earlier date, but that such an outbreak had gone unrecognized.
Officials said they were notified by the Taipei County Government Department of Health last month that a cluster of 55 people had exhibited symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, and that the possibility of food poisoning had initially been ruled out.
Fecal specimens from eight infected people were sent to a laboratory for a series of tests that presented negative results to the initial battery of tests. The samples were then retested using the recently developed test for Sapovirus and seven of the eight showed a positive result.
Officials said the virus is often transmitted through feces and oral contact, and that cases often arise in nurseries and kindergartens, but only rarely in colleges and universities.
Little research has been done on Sapovirus, and the prevalence rate is unclear, officials said.
They urged the public to wash their hands and maintain a healthy diet and good personal hygiene to avoid contracting the virus.
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