Until 2011 the genus Gyrovirus in the family Circoviridae consisted of a single virus (Chicken anemia virus or CAV) causing a common immunosuppressive disease in chickens when a second gyrovirus (HGyV) was reported on the skin of 4 % of healthy humans. HGyV is very closely related to a recently described chicken gyrovirus, AGV2, suggesting that they belong to the same viral species. During a viral metagenomic analysis of 100 human faeces from children with diarrhoea in Chile we identified multiple known human pathogens (adenoviruses, enteroviruses, astroviruses, sapoviruses, noroviruses, parechoviruses and rotaviruses) and a novel gyrovirus species we named GyV3 sharing <63 % similarity with other gyrovirus proteins with evidence of recombination with CAV in its UTR. Gyroviridae consensus PCR revealed a high prevalence of CAV DNA in diarrhoea and normal faeces from Chilean children and faeces of USA cats and dogs, which may reflect consumption of CAV-infected/vaccinated chickens. Whether GyV3 can infect humans and/or chickens requires further studies.

Children had suffered a mean of approximately 1.4 ADE by 18 months of age of which 15% and 18% were caused by rotavirus and norovirus, respectively. In general rotavirus infections were more severe than norovirus infections and for both viruses severity was not related to age. Norovirus reinfections were significantly more common than rotavirus reinfections but for GII norovirus a primary infection seems to confer protection against clinically significant reinfections.

: Nearly 20% of this Chilean cohort had persistent H. pylori stool sample detections during the first 5 years of life, acquired mostly during the first 24 months. Persistence was significantly associated with nonsecretor phenotype and daycare attendance, and possibly associated gastrointestinal symptoms were rare. This relatively common group of young children with persistent H. pylori colonization/infection will require further study.

SummaryThe current situation of endemic malaria in Mauritania is not clear since, in most health centres, suspected malaria cases are not confirmed by parasitological analysis and diagnosis is based on clinical symptoms alone. To obtain reliable data about malaria in this country, thin and thick blood smears were taken from patients with symptoms compatible with the illness, who attended two hospitals: Polyclinic of Nouakchott, which serves one-third of the country's population, where a malaria infection rate of 18.5% (77 of 446) was recorded; Plasmodium falciparum caused 61.85% of these, P. vivax 35.5% (28/77). In Kaedi Regional Hospital, provincial capital of the endemic Gorgol region, a prevalence of 25.49% (106 of 416) was recorded, with P. falciparum as the sole pathogenic species.Of the 77 cases of malaria diagnosed in Nouakchott, nine (seven of P. falciparum and two of P. vivax) were considered as endemic to the city. These cases were all children under 8 years of age except for one adult who had never left the capital, and this is the first time that cases endemic to this city have been detected.