Dr Balldt stated that on Sunday, 16 May 2010 Professor AG Duse who worked for the National Health Laboratory Services and the Wits University was called to assist with an outbreak of diarrhoea occurring predominantly in premature neonates in the neonatal wards numbers 177 and 184 at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academy Hospital. There were seventeen neonates who were affected at that stage. Dr Balldt informed the committee that pre-term and particularly very low birth weight neonates are vulnerable to infections and complications, due to the fact that their immune system was immature. Sixteen faecal samples were submitted for virology investigations and fifteen of these tested positive for Norovirus. She indicated that Noroviruses have been documented as causes of neonatal diarrhoea that can become complicated to more serious and potentially life-threatening conditions such as extensive inflammation and damage and death of cells in the gastrointestinal tract (necrotising enterocolitis). In premature neonates, severe inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract can lead to both resident and hospital-acquired gut bacteria migrating into the bloodstream causing severe sepsis and even death of the infant.