[Rotavirus diarrhea. Impact in a pediatric hospital of Buenos Aires].
Anticipating the use of the rotavirus vaccine, we performed this study in order to estimate the rotavirus disease burden in a pediatric hospital. We studied 648 children < 3 years of age between September/97 and August/98, assisted at the Outpatient Diarrhea Unit, or hospitalized due to acute diarrhea in our Hospital. We found rotavirus associated to 36% of the diarrhea cases studied in the Outpatient Clinics, and in 45% of the hospitalized children. We estimate the assistance of 1674 rotavirus diarrheas per year in the Outpatient Clinics, but only 14 of them required hospitalization. The study describes a peak of rotavirus diarrheas between March and June, and another peak of rotavirus-negative diarrheas between January and March (probably due to bacterial diarrheas). Rotavirus disease presented a higher frequency between 6 to 23 months of age; only 10% of the 233 rotavirus cases occurred in children older than 24 months and 13% in infants less than 6 months of age. The situation described is significant because the recently licensed rotavirus vaccine is being used in 3 doses at 2, 4 and 6 months and could have prevented most of the rotavirus cases observed during this study.
González
F S
FS
Laboratorio de Virología, Hospital de Niños Dr. Ricardo Gutiérrez, Buenos Aires.
Sordo
M E
ME
Rowensztein
G
G
Sabbag
L
L
Roussos
A
A
De Petre
E
E
Garello
M
M
Medei
A
A
Bok
K
K
Grinstein
S
S
Gómez
J A
JA
D000208:Acute Disease; D001118:Argentina / Q000453:epidemiology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003968:Diarrhea, Infantile / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D012401:Rotavirus / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012400:Rotavirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D012621:Seasons; D014765:Viral Vaccines
D014765:Viral Vaccines