Rotavirus Diarrhoea in Children and Animals of Urban and Rural Nepal

Abstract

Introduction Rotavirus, an etiologic agent of causing diarrhea, was identified in 25-40 percent of children with diarrhea in urban Kathmandu valley of Nepal, but the data in remote rural areas was inadequate. It was not clear whether domestic animals possessed Rotavirus and could become a source of infection in annual epidemic period. The current study described one-year prevalence of rotavirus in human beings and domestic animals in rural communities of Nepal. Objectives The purpose of this study was to reveal the association between domestic animal Rotavirus and child diarrhoea in the rural communities of Nepal. Methods Human faeces were collected from children under 5 years of age who developed diarrhoea and that from non-diarrhoeic children of equivalent ages. Animals' faecal samples were collected monthly from cows, buffaloes, pigs and dogs in the village. All samples were made 20 percent suspension in PBS and stored at -30 0 C. The study was undertaken from October 2001 to November 2002. Indirect sandwich ELISA with minor modification was applied for Rotavirus assay. Results A total of 714 stool samples from children and 772 from domestic animals were tested. Among children group, 116(16.2%) were found ELISA positive for Rotavirus whereas 8(1.03%) were positive among animal groups. The percentage of ELISA positive in hospital samples (30.6%) was significantly higher than in village (4.1%). The highest rate of rotavirus positive was also found in diarrhoeic stools (30.4%) compared to normal stools (0.87%) (P<0.05). The high incidence of diarrhea and Rotavirus was observed in winter. Rotavirus was found in 6 months to 2 years age groups more frequently than other groups while only three samples of normal feces contained Rotavirus. The incidence of Rotavirus in animals was 0.41 percent (1 of 242) of buffaloes, 2 of 254(0.78%) dogs and 3.62 percent (5 of 138) from diarrhoeal samples of pigs. Conclusion Rotavirus was found predominantly in winter and attacked 6 months to 2 years old children. The study indicated that the infected animals and hospitalized diarrhoeal children were possible source of Rotavirus infection in Nepal.