Association between Norovirus epidemics and school toilets design and management in Chengdu City / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To analyze the relationship between the toilet design and sanitary condition of primary and secondary schools in Chengdu and the epidemic situation of Norovirus infection, so as to provide scientific references for school toilet design and Norovirus prevention and control.@*Methods@#A total of 78 cases of norovirus epidemics from 2019 to 2020 were included in this study. These epidemics happened in 78 schools and the causes were indicated as human-to-human transmission. The Chi square and Mann-Whitney U test were used to compare categorical and continuous data respectively. Unconditional binary Logistic regression was used to examine the multivariate associations.@*Results@#Most epidemics happened from October in 2019 to March in 2020(79.49%, 62 cases), in primary schools (71.79%, 56 cases) and in the center area (52.56%, 41 cases). The median of the case number in each epidemic was 10. Overall, 56 schools (71.79%) were equipped with toilets which were flushed independently, and 22 schools (28.21%) were equipped with toilets which were flushed uniformly. There were 27 schools (34.62%) that did not have enough water taps. Logistic regression analysis found that those with toilets flushed uniformly had a stronger epidemic, compared to the schools with toilets flushed independently( OR=5.53, 95%CI=1.63-18.76, P <0.05).@*Conclusion@#In order to prevent intestinal infectious diseases , it is suggested that schools should design or reconstruct independent flushing toilets with adequate faucets.