Molecular characterization of enteric viral agents from children in northern region of Ghana

Abstract

Viral gastrointestinal infections are among the most important causes of childhood morbidity and mortality, especially in non-industrialized countries. The objective of this study was the molecular characterization of rotaviruses, noroviruses, adenoviruses, astroviruses, and enteroviruses obtained from 367 children in the Northern Region of Ghana. One hundred and forty-two rotavirus-positive stool samples were examined. The most frequent type identified was G1P[8] occurring in 80% of the cases. Of 27 norovirus positive samples, 5 isolates belonged to genogroup I and 22 to genogroup II. Adenoviruses were detected in 73 samples; 23.3% of these belonged to genogroup F, 31.5% to D, 17.8% to A, 15.1% to C, and 12.3% to B. Astrovirus typing of 12 positive samples displayed a distribution into four different genotypes: five sequences clustered with AstV-8, four with AstV-2, two with AstV-5, and one with AstV-6. Twenty-three different enterovirus types were identified in 45 positive samples, coxsackievirus A24 being the most frequent pathogen (18%). This first, comprehensive molecular characterization of enteric viruses in northern Ghana provides baseline data for the molecular epidemiology of these pathogens and immunisation strategies. The available rotavirus vaccines cover the predominant G1P[8] type and would reduce substantially disease burden in that area.

Resequencing microarray for detection of human adenoviruses in patients with community-acquired gastroenteritis: a proof-of-concept study

“…In the present proof-ofconcept study, we used a similar approach to show that a resequencing microarray can also be applied to virus detection in stool specimens for patients with communityacquired gastroenteritis. The incidence of human adenovirus gastroenteritis in this cohort was about 7 %, which was similar to that in other studies on paediatric patients from different countries in Europe, Asia and Africa published in the last 5 years (median 3.3 %, range 1.9-19.9 %) (Li et al, 2005(Li et al, , 2009Fabiana et al, 2007;Silva et al, 2008;Dey et al, 2009;Jin et al, 2009). Such a high sensitivity of the resequencing microarray, using PCR as the standard, for human adenoviruses has been shown for respiratory specimens, conjunctival swabs and stool specimens.…”

“…In the present study, the two strains of human adenovirus type 41 belonged to species F, a human adenovirus species not included in the panel of RPM-Flu-3.1. It is notable that human adenovirus type 21 has only been found once in stool specimens from patients with gastroenteritis (Silva et al, 2008), but can also be picked up by RPMFlu-3.1. Unlike our previous study on patients with conjunctivitis, all three human adenoviruses in the present study were accurately assigned to the correct species of B (type 21) and F (type 41) by the TessArae server, although both human adenoviruses types 21 and 41 were not included in the panel of RPM-Flu-3.1.…”

Norovirus GII.17 Predominates in Selected Surface Water Sources in Kenya

“…Nucleotide sequence information on NoV GII.17 strains from Burkina Faso (Nordgren et al 2013), Morocco (KJ162374), Cameroon (Ayukekbong et al 2011) and South Africa (Murray et al 2013) are available in GenBank. Although NoV GII.17 seems to be prevalent in some parts of Africa this genotype was not identified in clinical specimens (Silva et al 2008;Abugalia et al 2011;Hassine-Zaafrane et al 2013;Huynen et al 2013;) and environmental samples (Sdiri-Loulizi et al 2010) from many other African regions and the GII.17 predominance appears to be peculiar to Kenya. Norovirus GII.17 is of clinical relevance as it has been implicated in nosocomial NoV infection (Sukhrie et al 2011) and chronic NoV infection in a kidney transplant patient (Schorn et al 2010).…”

“…The two NoV GI.1 strains (KDMarch2012-301 and KDMarch2012-304), detected in the urban Mutoine river, showed a high nucleotide sequence identity (97%) to a clinical NoV GI.1 strain (JX416391) from Burkina Faso. Except for studies in South Africa Murray 2013), Botswana (Mattison et al 2010) and Burkino Faso (Nordgren et al 2013), the occurrence of NoV GI.1 does not appear to be widely reported in Africa as no GI.1 strains were detected in diarrhoeal stool samples from children in Nairobi, Kenya (Mans et al 2014) nor in the clinical specimens (Silva et al 2008;Abugalia et al 2011;Ayukekbong et al 2011;Trainor et al 2013) or sewage samples (Sdiri-Loulizi et al 2010) from other African countries. Norovirus GI.3 however, appears to more prevalent in African regions (Ayukekbong et al 2011;Yassin et al 2012;Trainor et al 2013), including Kenya (Mans et al, 2014).…”

Non-Polio Enteroviruses, the Neglected and Emerging Human Pathogens:Are we Waiting for the Sizzling Enterovirus Volcano to Erupt?

“…In a few diarrheal patients, bocavirus, torovirus and picobirnavirus have been reported (Jamieson et al, 1998;Jin et al, 2011;Gallimore et al, 1995). A few picornaviruses including enteroviruses have been reported from a small number of sporadic diarrhoeal cases and as part of a few small-scale epidemiological studies (Harada et al, 2009;Harvala and Simmonds, 2009;Holtz et al, 2008Holtz et al, , 2009Nyangao et al, 2006;Kapoor et al, 2008;Patel et al, 1985;Phan et al, 2005;Patil et al, 2009;Yamashita et al, 1993;Rai et al, 2007;Scarcella et al, 2009, Silva et al, 2008, but their association with diarrhoea has not been seriously considered due C Durga Rao to lack of detailed investigations. Further, a great majority of epidemiological studies failed to include enterovirus in the investigations.…”