RESUMEN
Background: Norovirus gastroenteritis is commonly an acute infection that lasts 2-3 days, but in immunocompromised patients norovirus can cause a chronic gastroenteritis lasting for years. Norovirus replicates in the gastrointestinal tract, but the pathway of viral clearance is not yet known. Promising results of enterally administered immunoglobulin in the treatment of chronic norovirus gastroenteritis in immunocompromised patients have previously been published. Case presentation: We report two individuals with common variable immunodeficiency and chronic debilitating norovirus gastroenteritis. Both patients were treated with enterally administered immunoglobulin via a duodenal feeding tube as other treatment modalities have been unsuccessful. The patients did not experience any immediate or long-term benefit of enterally administered immunoglobulin. Conclusion: Despite previous case reports of successful treatment of chronic norovirus infection among immunocompromised patients with enterally administered immunoglobulin, these two patients experienced no benefit of the treatment. This demonstrates the need for further research in treatment of chronic norovirus infection in immunocompromised patients.
RESUMEN
Rotavirus (RV) is a major vaccine-preventable killer of young children worldwide. Two RV vaccines are globally commercially available and other vaccines are in different stages of development. Due to the absence of a suitable correlate of protection (CoP), all RV vaccine efficacy trials have had clinical endpoints. These trials represent an important challenge since RV vaccines have to be introduced in many different settings, placebo-controlled studies are unethical due to the availability of licensed vaccines, and comparator assessments for new vaccines with clinical endpoints are very large, complex, and expensive to conduct. A CoP as a surrogate endpoint would allow predictions of vaccine efficacy for new RV vaccines and enable a regulatory pathway, contributing to the more rapid development of new RV vaccines. The goal of this review is to summarize experiences from RV natural infection and vaccine studies to evaluate potential CoP for use as surrogate endpoints for assessment of new RV vaccines, and to explore challenges and opportunities in the field.