The rotavirus causing acute gastroenteritis in children of under 5-year of age in Indonesia 1972-2018: a review

Abstract

The reason of this review is the absence of thorough information of rotavirus infection that had been the major cause of severe diarrhea in children of under 5-years of age in Indonesia, despite numerous publications elaborating rotavirus infection in some geographic areas of Indonesia. A review was conducted towards 52 published articles covering rotavirus research in Indonesia during period of 1972-2018.A thirty three selected articles were match with review criteria which comprises rotavirus positive rate, clinical features, and severity of rotavirus infection, as well as genotypes of the rotavirus. Rotavirus has been known as the major cause of severe diarrhea among children under 5 years of age world wide including in Indonesia. The rotavirus positive rates were range from 31.1 to 90.9%, which variably to different subject’s population, study criteria and methods, and time. Rotavirus can cause severe diarrhea with majority of infected children suffered from dehydration, vomiting, and fever. The first genotyping conducted in Indonesia in the early 1980s revealed the predominant genotypes were G3 and G4, followed by G2, and small proportion of G1 and mixed genotypes. However the following decades G1 and G2 were on the raise with G3 predominantly re-appeared on 2015. G9 was first identified in 2004, and occasionally detected until 2015. The P genotyping revealed P[4], P[6], and P[8] were the common genotypes detected. Mixed and untyped genotypes were also detected in various proportion. Rotavirus diarrhea is a vaccination preventable disease, after natural infection, the immune system will produce protective antibodies that will protect from infection of both homotypic and heterotypic, however homotypic infection will protect stronger. Therefore this review recommends continuous rotavirus genotypes surveillance in Indonesia.