Prevalence of Parainfluenza Viruses in Seoul, 2021 - 2022.

Background: Parainfluenza virus (PIV) is a significant etiological agent of acute lower respiratory tract infections (ALRIs) in infants and young children. The present study has been conducted to investigate the prevalence of recently identified respiratory viruses.

Methods: In total, 543 oropharyngeal or nasopharyngeal swab samples collected from hospitalized patients with acute respiratory symptoms (ARS) between January and December 2021 (5,653 females and 4,950 males) were tested for respiratory viruses using RT-PCR.

Quantitative differential analysis of norovirus outbreak samples using RT-ddPCR.

Noroviruses cause acute gastroenteritis with symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting, and their high infectivity allows outbreaks to readily occur. Quickly identifying and isolating potential contaminants is an effective method to prevent the spread of outbreaks. A total of 376 samples collected from nine outbreaks were categorized as either patient, asymptomatic individual, cook or environmental samples, according to the source of contamination.