Rotavirus serology and excretion in hospitalized non-diarrhoeal patients.
Despite the well-recognized association between rotavirus (RV) and infantile diarrhoeal disease, a few studies have shown that the isolation rate of RV from the faeces of non-diarrhoeal patients can be high, suggesting that the finding of RV in the stools of individual gastro-enteritis (GE) patients need not necessarily denote an aetiological relationship. A prospective study of rotavirus serology and stool excretion was carried out in a group of non-diarrhoeal paediatric patients. A positive ELISA for RV antigen was found in 13.3% children, which compared favourably with an asymptomatic RV-excretion rate of 16.2% found in normal subjects in the community, but differed significantly from the 54.6% RV-excretion rate found in hospitalized GE patients. This confirms that RV is an important enteropathogen. Furthermore, approximately half of the non-diarrhoeal infants acquired nosocomial RV infections in hospital, most of these being asymptomatic. One-sixth of asymptomatic RV excretors showed evidence of prior exposure to rotavirus.
Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Natal, South Africa.
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Haffejee
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Moosa
D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000209:etiology; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012401:Rotavirus / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012400:Rotavirus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology; D013019:South Africa
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D000956:Antigens, Viral