Background: Globally, rotavirus (RV) infection is the primary cause of severe gastroenteritis (GE) in children aged <5 years, leading to >500,000 deaths annually. In the Kingdom of Bahrain, recent data describing the epidemiology of rotavirus-associated gastroenteritis (RVGE) is not available. To address this gap, the present single-center, referral hospital-based surveillance study aimed to estimate the burden of RVGE in children aged <5 years in the Kingdom of Bahrain.Methods: Children aged <5 years hospitalized for GE were enrolled at Salmaniya Medical Complex, a reference pediatric hospital, between April 2006 and April 2007. Stool samples were tested for RV using ELISA and RV-positive samples were genotyped by RT-PCR. The severity of RVGE (Severe = Vesikari score ≥11) was assessed using the 20-point Vesikari scale. Chi-square test was used to analyze the association between the severity of GE and RV-positivity status (post-hoc analysis).Results: 314 children were enrolled after elimination of 75 children who did not meet the eligibility criteria. The according-toprotocol (ATP) analysis included 239 children; 107 (44.8%) children were RV-positive; 128 (53.5%) were RV-negative and 4 (1.7%) had an unknown RV status. The highest proportion of RVGE cases was observed in the 6-23 months age group (76.6%; 82/107). RVGE hospitalizations occurred year-round with peaks in March-06 (75%) and April-06 (61.9%).The association between severe GE episodes and RV-positive status was statistically significant (p = 0.0097). Intravenous rehydration was used for treatment in 28.0% RVpositive and 17.2% RV-negative children before hospitalization. Among the 17 (15.9%) RV-positive samples serotyped and genotyped, G1 (58.8%) and P[8] (82.4%) were the most common RV types detected. Conclusion:The data from this burden of disease study in the Kingdom of Bahrain shows that the disease burden of RVGE is substantial among children aged between 6 months and 23 months. This baseline data will facilitate the documentation of the potential reduction in the RVGE disease burden in children aged <5 years in the Kingdom of Bahrain, since the introduction of RV vaccination into the national immunization program in 2009.

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Background and Aim Congenital malformations are one of the important reasons of mortality and morbidity in newborns. The aim of this study is to give the frequency and distribution of the congenital malformation in a neonatal intensive care unit from Turkey. Method A retrospective analysis of congenital abnormalities in singleton births was performed to identify frequency, types, combined congenital abnormalities and distribution of malformation in newborns over a 7 year period. Congenital malformations were classified according to involved organ systems and also classed as single and multiple malformations. Result 1024 newborns with congenital malformations (13.7%) were identified among the 7450 hospitalized newborns in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Mean birth weight was 2988±648gr, mean gestational age was 37.9±2.5 weeks. Consanguinity rate was 22.3%. Prenatal diagnosis rate was 11%. The most affected system was the cardiovascular system (68.8%). Most of the malformations (69.6%) were single malformations while 20.4% of the newborns had multiple major and 8.4% of the newborns had multiple minor malformations. On the other hand, 1.4%, 0.1% and 1.6% of the newborns had deformation, disruption and displasia, respectively. Chromosomal analysis was only performed 24.8% and 65.3% of them were in normal limits. The most frequently detected chromosomal abnormality was Trisomy 21. Overall mortality rate was 15.5% among the newborns with congenital malformations. Conclusion The most common congenital malformation was cardio-vascular malformations in our hospital. Preventing and prenatal diagnosis of congenital malformations may help to reduce perinatal mortality and morbidity.Therefore, each country should establish its own national database for prevention and management of congenital malformations.