Abstract
Diarrheal diseases are a great public health problem; they are among the most causes leading to morbidity and mortality of infants and children particularly in developing countries and even in developed countries. Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe gastroenteritis in infants and young children in both developed and developing countries. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence rate of Rotavirus infection, its genotypes, and risk factors among children with diarrhea in Taiz, Yemen. 795 fecal samples were collected from children (less than 5 years old), suffering from diarrhea and attending the Yemeni-Swedish Hospital (YSH) in Taiz , Yemen, from November 2006 to February 2008. Rotavirus was detected by enzyme linkage immunosorbent assay (ELISA) on stool specimens of children. Genotypes of Rotavirus were characterized by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). The results showed that 358 (45.2%) were Rotavirus-positive and the most prevalent genotypes were G2P[4] (55%), followed by G1P[8] (15%). In addition, Rotavirus was found through the whole year; however, higher frequency during the summer season (53.4%) and lower frequency during the winter season (37.1%).
Highlights
Diarrheal diseases are a great public health problem that leads to morbidity and mortality of infants and children in developing countries and even in developed countries [1]
Rotavirus diarrhea was represented in the males as 61.5% while in the females it was represented as 38.5%
The higher frequency of Rotavirus diarrhea was in infants between 7 and 11 months (32.1%) and the lower frequency was in infants between 1 and 6 months (29.6%) (Table 2)
Summary
Diarrheal diseases are a great public health problem that leads to morbidity and mortality of infants and children in developing countries and even in developed countries [1]. Rotavirus is the most important cause of severe gastroenteritis among young children. Recent conservative estimates have indicated that 702,000 children die each year from Rotavirus disease and that up to 85% of these deaths occur in low-income countries [2, 3]. Rotavirus remains a major clinical problem with 80% of children developing Rotavirus diarrhea in their first 3 years and the highest rates of illness occurring during the second year [4, 5]. In the United States of America (USA), approximately 20–60 deaths occur every year among children aged less than 5 years [6, 7] due to Rotavirus. Rotavirus infection results in the hospitalization of an estimated 70,000 children and 100 children died annually in the USA from complications of Rotavirus infection [7]
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