Astrovirus

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Astroviruses that infect humans have been poorly studied due to the fact that they do not grow in culture. Astroviruses belong to the family Astroviridae along with a virus known as mamastrovirus. They were first described in the year 1975 using electron microscopes during an outbreak of diarrhoea. Astrovirus has a non-segmented, single stranded, positive sense RNA genome within a non-enveloped icosahedral capsid. In 1995 it was shown that astrovirus was the main viral cause of infectious intestinal disease in England (Roderick et al., 1995).

[edit] References

Roderick P, Wheeler J, Cowden J, Sockett P, Skinner R, Mortimer P, Rowe B, Rodriques L. 1995. A pilot study of infectious intestinal disease in England. Epidemiol. Infect. 114:277-88