Prevalence and genetic diversity of gastroenteritis viruses in hospitalized children < 5 years of age in Maharashtra state, Western India, 2017–2019

Abstract

Four gastroenteritis viruses were responsible for 54% of the acute gastroenteritis (AGE) cases in children hospitalized between May 2017 and December 2019 in Pune city of Maharashtra state, Western India. The majority (79%) of the children were <2 years of age. The prevalence of Rotavirus A (RVA) was 30.5% followed by 14.3% for norovirus, 8.4% for adenovirus, and 5.5% for astrovirus. The severity of the disease was highest in patients with coinfections compared with the patients with a single infection or negative for all (p = 0.024). Genotyping analysis showed that the majority of the RVA‐positive samples (66%) could be typed as G3P[8], 63.6% of the norovirus as GII.4 Sydney [P16], 44% of the adenovirus as type 41%, and 56.2% of the astrovirus as astrovirus type 1. The almost equivalent prevalence of rotavirus and nonrotaviruses and acute gastroenteritis (AGE) cases without known etiology in around 46% of the cases was noted in the present study. Our data highlight that after the recent inclusion of rotavirus vaccines as a part of the National Immunization schedule in India, conducting extensive AGE surveillance in children should include nonrotaviruses such as norovirus.

Epidemiology of major entero-pathogenic viruses and genetic characterization of Group A rotaviruses among children (≤5 years) with acute gastroenteritis in eastern India, 2018–2020

“…This is consistent with the study in Maharashtra reporting increased detection of AstV during compared to 2004-2008(Gopalkrishna et al, 2021. NoV has been the leading cause of viral enteritis in countries like Japan (Thongprachum et al, 2015), Qatar (Al-Thani et al, 2013), the United States (Chhabra et al, 2013), the United Kingdom (Tam et al, 2012), but positivity of NoV in Kolkata during this period was less (~6%) compared to reports from other countries or other Indian states (Gopalkrishna et al, 2021;Gupta et al, 2018;Menon et al, 2016;Rohra et al, 2018). Most of the enteric virus infections were observed among the 6-to 24-month-aged children in our study (Figure 3).…”

“…The present enteric‐virus positivity rate observed in eastern India, was comparable to the reports from other Asian countries like Iran (44.3%; Najafi et al, 2013), Asian Russia (37.8%; Zhirakovskaia et al, 2019) and to Nigeria (42.6%; Imade & Eghafona, 2015; and 36%; Arowolo et al, 2019). The positivity rate in this study is consistent with ~43% enteric virus positivity observed in north‐western India like Meerut but lower than observed in Pune (~54%) during 2016‐2019 (Gopalkrishna et al, 2021).…”

Acute Infectious Gastroenteritis: The Causative Agents, Omics-Based Detection of Antigens and Novel Biomarkers

“…Rotavirus is the most common agent causing AGE in children worldwide [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. It has been suggested to be one of the most pathogenic causative agents in AGE which correlates with infectious diarrhoea, vomiting, and higher frequency of fever [ 13 , 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”

“…The widely available biomarker platform utilized is the enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to screen for the rotavirus antigen [ 10 , 11 , 13 , 15 , 19 , 22 , 26 , 92 , 93 , 94 ]. Amongst EIA kit used were Premier Rotaclone, Meridian Bioscience Inc., Cincinnati, OH, USA [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 19 , 93 , 94 ], RIDASCREEN Rotavirus R Biopharm AG, Darmstadt, Germany [ 15 , 93 ], and ProSpect Rotavirus Test, Oxoid Ltd., UK [ 22 , 93 ]. Rotavirus antigens can also be detected by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) [ 12 , 16 , 18 , 20 , 28 , 30 ] which includes ELISA kits such as Premier Rotaclone, Meridian Bioscience, Inc. [ 12 ], Fecal Rotavirus Antigen ELISA Kit (EDI, CA, USA) [ 16 ], ProSpecTM Rotavirus Microplate Assay, Oxoid [ 20 ] and Rota Antigen Test Device, Cambridge [ 28 ].…”

Evaluation of a bivalent recombinant vaccine candidate targeting norovirus and rotavirus: Antibodies to rotavirus NSP4 exert antidiarrheal effects without virus neutralization

“…Rotavirus and norovirus are the two most prevalent viral pathogens causing infectious gastroenteritis with significant morbidity and mortality 1–4 . Commercial rotavirus vaccines, such as the live‐attenuated Rotarix from GlaxoSmithKline and RotaTeq from Merk, are highly effective (80%–90%) and have substantially reduced the rotavirus‐associated disease burden.…”