Epidemiology and Clinical Characteristics of Rotavirus and Norovirus Infections in Hospitalized Children Less Than 5 Years of Age With Acute Gastroenteritis in Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Acute gastroenteritis is one of the most important causes of death in children in developing countries which cause by different enteropathogens, including bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Among these, most of the acute gastroenteritis in children are caused by viral infections mainly by rotavirus and norovirus. This study aimed to study the epidemiological and clinical status of acute gastroenteritis resulting from rotavirus and norovirus in children between June 2015 and June 2016 in Iran. A total of 211 stool specimens were collected from Ali Asghar Children's Hospital and Bahrami Children's Hospital in Tehran, from June 2015 to June 2016. The samples were screened by commercial enzyme immunoassay (EIA) Ridascreen kit and real time RT-PCR to detect rotavirus and norovirus genogroups I and II, respectively. The information on demographic and clinical manifestations was collected, and data analyzed using IBM SPSS statistics version 22. Overall, the detection rate of rotavirus was 25.6 %, and for norovirus infection, it was 17.5%. All norovirus positive specimens belonged to genogroup II. Higher rates of rotavirus infections were observed in children from 7 to 24 months, and higher rates of norovirus infections were detected in children from 1 to 12 months. Clinical symptoms were not different between rotavirus and norovirus case-patients. The present study not only highlights the importance of rotavirus and norovirus infections in Iran but also verifies the relevance of norovirus as the cause of severe gastroenteritis in children.

Association between circulating rotavirus genotypes and histo‐blood group antigens in the children hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis in Iran

“…The VP8* sequences were obtained from 20 to 88 rotavirus strains in the present and previous 64,65 studies, respectively. As depicted in Figure 1A, The phylogenetic tree showed that all rotavirus strains from Iran belonged to P[II] genogroup, and also indicated that the most common detected rotaviruses belonged to P [8] genotype (n = 102; 94.4%), while the remaining belonged to P [4] (n = 3; 2.8%) and P [6] (n = 3; 2.8%) genotypes (Figure 1B).…”

Evaluation of the detection of diarrhoea-associated RNA viruses in immunocompromised children in Iran

“…and Eftekhari et al. on children under 5 years of age in Iran, the prevalence of norovirus was 17.5% and 20.0%, respectively [ 33 , 34 ]. This virus is an important pathogen in immunocompromised patients where cases of norovirus-associated death have been reported in this group of patients, including in non-Hodgkin lymphoma [ 35 ].…”

Prevalence and factors associated with rotavirus diarrhea among children aged 3–24 months after the introduction of the vaccine at a referral hospital in Uganda: a cross-sectional study

“…Diarrhea in Uganda is still ranked among the top 10 causes of morbidity, mainly because it is highly contagious and associated with severe dehydration leading to shock and multiorgan failure [ 13 , 14 ]. Studies carried out at Mulago National Hospital in 2010 and 2012 respectively found a pre-rotavirus vaccination prevalence of 45.4% among children aged 3–59 months [ 14 ] and 32.8% among children under 5 years [ 15 ].…”