Epidemiology of rotavirus infection among young children with acute diarrhoea in Burkina Faso

Isidore Jo Bonkoungou,Kaisa Haukka,Sheick O Coulibaly,Alfred S Traoré,Nicolas Barro,Idrissa Sanou,Benoit Benon,Fabienne Bon

doi:10.1186/1471-2431-10-94

Abstract

BackgroundIn anticipation of vaccine introduction, we assessed epidemiology of rotavirus disease among children visiting medical centre due to acute diarrhoea in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.MethodsBetween November 2008 and February 2010, stool specimens from 447 children less than 5 years of age suffering from diarrhoea were tested for the presence of rotavirus by antigen detection using an immunochromatographic test. Sociodemographic, environmental and clinical factors were assessed during the study.ResultsRotavirus antigen was detected in 151 (33.8%) of the patients. Most of the cases (94.2%) were in children < 24 months of age. Fever and vomiting were the symptoms most commonly reported in association with rotavirus diarrhoea and the patients were often hospitalized. Rotavirus-associated diarrhoea occurred mostly during the season from December to April (dry season). Rotavirus infection was significantly less frequent in breast-fed than among bottle-fed babies.ConclusionsThe results of this study underscore the need to control rotavirus infections among young children in Burkina Faso and may argue a decision on the introduction of rotavirus vaccine in Burkina Faso.

Highlights

In anticipation of vaccine introduction, we assessed epidemiology of rotavirus disease among children visiting medical centre due to acute diarrhoea in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
It has been estimated that about 39% of childhood diarrhoea hospitalizations are caused by rotaviruses and nearly half a million children die from rotavirus infections each year [2]
Rotavirus prevalence Out of the 471 children with acute diarrhea initially included in the study, 24 were subsequently excluded because for 19 of them no sample was collected and for 5 of them no epidemiological data were available

Summary

Introduction

In anticipation of vaccine introduction, we assessed epidemiology of rotavirus disease among children visiting medical centre due to acute diarrhoea in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Rotavirus mortality is concentrated in the developing countries on the Asian subcontinent, Africa, and Latin America where access to health care facilities is limited [3]. This may result in a significant disease burden and economic effect of direct medical costs, loss of work, quality of life and mortality. Vaccination is the only control measure likely to have a significant impact on the incidence of severely dehydrating rotavirus disease [4].

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