Citation
Lee, Rachel M.; Lessler, Justin; Lee, Rose A.; Rudolph, Kara E.; Reich, Nicholas G.; Perl, Trish M.; & Cummings, Derek A. T. (2013). Incubation Periods of Viral Gastroenteritis: A Systematic Review. BMC Infectious Diseases, 13, 446. PMCID: PMC3849296Abstract
BACKGROUND: Accurate knowledge of incubation period is important to investigate and to control infectious diseases and their transmission, however statements of incubation period in the literature are often uncited, inconsistent, and/or not evidence based.METHODS: In a systematic review of the literature on five enteric viruses of public health importance, we found 256 articles with incubation period estimates, including 33 with data for pooled analysis.
RESULTS: We fit a log-normal distribution to pooled data and found the median incubation period to be 4.5 days (95% CI 3.9-5.2 days) for astrovirus, 1.2 days (95% CI 1.1-1.2 days) for norovirus genogroups I and II, 1.7 days (95% CI 1.5-1.8 days) for sapovirus, and 2.0 days (95% CI 1.4-2.4 days) for rotavirus.
CONCLUSIONS: Our estimates combine published data and provide sufficient quantitative detail to allow for these estimates to be used in a wide range of clinical and modeling applications. This can translate into improved prevention and control efforts in settings with transmission or the risk of transmission.
URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2334-13-446Reference Type
Journal ArticleYear Published
2013Journal Title
BMC Infectious DiseasesAuthor(s)
Lee, Rachel M.Lessler, Justin
Lee, Rose A.
Rudolph, Kara E.
Reich, Nicholas G.
Perl, Trish M.
Cummings, Derek A. T.