Epidemiology of Human Rotaviruses in Argentina as Determined by RNA Genome Electrophoresis

Abstract

Rotavirus gastroenteritis was studied by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and by PAGE from April 1983 to April 1985 at the Buenos Aires Ricardo Gutierrez Children’s Hospital and at the San Justo Children’s Hospital. Based on examination of 576 cases, rotavirus was identified in 109 (18.9%) cases by ELISA and in 99 (17.2%) cases by PAGE. As a diagnostic tool PAGE presented a sensitivity of 90.8% compared with ELISA. Compared with the control SA-11 genome, 84 samples (84.9%) presented a long electropherotype and 15 isolates (15.1%) presented a short electropherotype. We detected 35 different long electropherotypes and report a short electropherotype that did not show genome variation and was responsible for an outbreak in the San Justo Children’s Hospital population from September 1983 to July 1984.

Serotyping of human rotaviruses in Argentina by ELISA with monoclonal antibodies

“…In Argentina, rotaviruses have been described as important pathogens in animals and humans [3,14,17,21]. In the present report, we describe results of serotyping of HRV from different Argentine populations using an ELISA with serotype-specific monoclonal antibodies.…”

Anticipating rotavirus vaccines: review of epidemiologic studies of rotavirus diarrhea in Argentina

“…Rotavirus was detected in the highest percentages of diarrhea patients during the cold May-July period (20,21,24,25), when it was sometimes identified in more than 50% of all children hospitalized for diarrhea (15-17, 31, 32). In both Buenos Aires and Tucumán, the winter peak of rotavirus detections occurred when the total number of diarrhea cases was relatively low; the peak numbers of diarrhea cases, most of bacterial origin, occurred in the summer months (Figure 2b) (21).…”

“…The size of the cohort of at-risk children was estimated from the 1991 National Census of Population and Housing (41). The percentage of hospitalized rotavirus-associated diarrhea cases was estimated from the study conducted at the Buenos Aires Children's Hospital (25) and from data in the foregoing analysis. Epidemiologic data on the incidence of all diarrheas, rotavirus diarrheas, and diarrhea cases requiring hospitalization or medical attention were obtained from the prospective study performed in Avellaneda (21,22,24).…”

“…Using an estimated diarrhea incidence of 2.1 cases per child-year among Argentine children 0-23 months old, a hospitalization rate of 3.9% (21,22,24) for these cases, and a rotavirus detection rate of 19% among children hospitalized for diarrhea (25), we estimated that 21 000 of the 650 000 Argentine children born in 1991 would be hospitalized for rotavirus-associated diarrhea during their first two years of life.…”

“…In 1978, Muchinik et al conducted the first study to determine the frequency of rotavirus in patients with acute diarrhea admitted to the "Ricardo Gutiérrez" Children's Hospital of Buenos Aires (15)(16)(17). Since then, a variety of other studies developed by several groups have evaluated different aspects of rotavirus epidemiology in different settings (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35).…”