title: RT-PCR based diagnosis revealed importance of human group B rotavirus infection in childhood diarrhoea.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Human group B rotavirus was first identified as causative agent of a large outbreak of severe gastroenteritis affecting more than 1 million people, predominantly adults in China in 1982-1983. In spite of serological evidences for the presence of group B rotavirus in many countries of the world, the virus has been detected only from China, India and Bangladesh, where most of the cases were from adults.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To ascertain the role of group B rotavirus as an aetiological agent of diarrhoea among children in Kolkata, India.
  
  
  METHODS
  An active surveillance was conducted for rotavirus infection in children in a leading referral paediatric hospital and a few samples were also collected from adults of another hospital in Kolkata, India over a period of 3 years (2002-2004). After primary screening of rotaviruses by RNA electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gel, 200 of 412 samples negative by PAGE were screened by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction for group B rotaviruses. The group B rotavirus positives samples were also confirmed by dot-blot hybridization.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the study period, we detected 37 (18.5%) sporadic cases of human group B rotavirus infection in children below 3 years of age of which 15 (7.5%) showed mixed infection with group A rotaviruses by RT-PCR. In dot-blot hybridization studies the RNA of all rotavirus positive samples hybridized with the nonisotopic psoralen-biotin labeled total RNA probe generated from a human group B rotavirus CAL-1 strain confirming the samples as group B rotaviruses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The shift in age preference of group B rotavirus infection from adult to children and mixed infection of group B and group A rotaviruses reveals the importance of group B rotavirus as an etiological agent of childhood diarrhoea. Therefore, future vaccination strategy should include both group A and B rotaviruses to control rotavirus diarrhoea.
authors.affiliation: Division of Virology, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, P-33 CIT Road, Scheme XM, Beliaghata, Kolkata-700010, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Barman
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Samajdar
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Mitra
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dutta
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Bhattacharya
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Krishnan
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: T N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Naik
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology*; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012401:Rotavirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012400:Rotavirus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA