Prevalence of rotaviral diarrhoea in hospitalized children.

Human rotaviruses are the most important etiologic agents of acquired diarrhoea in infants and young children worldwide. Rotavirus diarrhoea is more frequent during the winter. Limited reports are available from India about diarrhoea due to rotavirus. Some reports of rotaviral diarrhoea in children between 1 month 4 years of age are available. Therefore, we studied the prevalence of rotaviral diarrhoea in hospitalized children in the age group of 5-12 years. Total samples processed for rotavirus were 92. All of them were liquid stools. There were 83.7% patients in the age group of 5-8 years and 16.3% in 8-12 years. All the stool samples were examined macroscopically and microscopically for the presence of any ova and/or cyst. For bacterial pathogens, enrichment was done in alkaline peptone water and gram negative broth and incubated at 37°C for 24-48 hours. The bacterial enteropathogens were identified by standard laboratory methods. ELISA was performed by using Ridascreen® Rotavirus manufactured by R-Biopharm GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany which utilizes monoclonal antibodies directed against VP6 (group specific antigen for all known human rotaviruses), in a solid phase sandwich type ELISA.