Viral agents associated with acute gastroenteritis in children hospitalized with diarrhea in Lanzhou, China.
BACKGROUND
Gastroenteritis is a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality worldwide. Rotavirus, human caliciviruses (HucV), adenovirus, and astrovirus are recognized as common etiologies of acute gastroenteritis.


OBJECTIVE
To use antigen detection and molecular methods to determine the viral etiology of childhood diarrhea in Lanzhou, China, 2005-2007.


METHODS
544 stool specimens were collected from children hospitalized with diarrhea. ELISA, RT-PCR, or PCR were used to detect viruses commonly causing diarrhea.


RESULTS
Group A rotavirus, norovirus, sapovirus, astrovirus, and adenovirus, were detected in 54.0%, 9.2%, 1.1%, 3.3%, and 4.4%, respectively. No group B or group C rotaviruses were detected. The relative contribution of these viruses changed greatly over 2 years. The percentage of rotavirus and adenovirus dropped from 61.2% and 5.4% to 47.6% and 1.4%, whereas HucV increased from 5.0% to 15.0%. G1 and P[8] were the predominant rotavirus strains, and P[6] was detected for the first time in this area. The predominant norovirus strain changed from GII3 to GII4, and the subtypes of GII4 changed from the Hunter strain to the variant 2006b strain.


CONCLUSIONS
The distribution of viruses and genotypes of individual viruses causing gastroenteritis in Lanzhou, China changed greatly during 2005-2007.
Jin
Yu
Y
Department of Pediatrics, The First Hospital of Lanzhou University, China.
Cheng
Wei-xia
WX
Yang
Xue-mei
XM
Jin
Miao
M
Zhang
Qing
Q
Xu
Zi-qian
ZQ
Yu
Jie-mei
JM
Zhu
Lin
L
Yang
Su-hua
SH
Liu
Na
N
Cui
Shu-xian
SX
Fang
Zhao-yin
ZY
Duan
Zhao-jun
ZJ
D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000821:virology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000821:virology*; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D015995:Prevalence; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D014780:Viruses / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification*