Rotaviral gastroenteritis--some recent developments.

Abstract

Rotaviruses are a major cause of diarrhea-related infant deaths and are more likely to produce dehydration. 3 recent developments suggest the possibility that rotaviruses may eventually be controllable through immunoprophylactic measures: 1) human rotaviruses have been shown to be adaptable to tissue-culture propagation 2) typing methods may soon allow the specific characterization of human strains by biochemical or antigenic analyses and 3) attenuated rotaviruses have been discovered or derived and are being evaluated as vaccine candidates. Approaches to rotavirus characterizatio include biochemical characterization with PAGE analyses of rotavirus RNA and detrmination of specificity by plaque-reduction neutralization testing and serological classification of human and animal rotaviruses. A unified subtype classification will be required to enable study of geographic differences and to better define the epidemiology of rotaviruses. Research further indicates that rotavirus may not be causing the illness in nonclassical cases of diarrhea even when rotavirus is identified in stool.