A new variant of norovirus is the likely culprit in severe outbreaks of gastroenteritis in 2002, including ones on U.S. cruise ships, says a study in this week’s issue of The Lancet.Ben Lopman, from the U.K. Health Protection Agency, and his European colleagues analyzed data about viral gastroenteritis in 10 European countries.They found an increase in norovirus outbreaks in England/Wales, Germany and the Netherlands in 2002 coincided with the detection and emergence of a new norovirus variant that featured a consistent mutation in the polymerase phase.
