Epidemiological features of rotavirus infection in Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil, from 1986 to 2000

Abstract

Key words: rotavirus -gastroenteritis -epidemiology -seasonality - Goiás -Brazil Diarrhoea is an important cause of morbidity in humans throughout the world, affecting mainly infants and children . Group A rotavirus is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in young children, causing a large number of hospitalizations (Pérez-Schael et al. 1999). Rotavirus is also associated with child mortality in several countries (Bern et al. 1992, Argüelles et al. 2000, Kapikian et al. 2001. This virus was detected for the first time in Brazil in 1976 (Linhares et al. 1977). After that description, several investigations were made and results demonstrated the relevance of rotavirus in the etiology of diarrhoea throughout the country (Rácz et al. 1988, Pereira et al. 1993, Leite et al. 1996.This study presents results from a rotavirus surveillance in Goiânia, Goiás. Our analysis was focused on the role of the virus in the diarrhoeal illness, as well as on ageprevalence and seasonality of rotavirus infection in the region. out diarrhoea from three different settings: children admitted to three hospitals (Hospital Materno Infantil, Hospital das Clínicas, and Hospital Lúcio Rebelo); children seen in outpatient clinics of Hospital Lúcio Rebelo, and children attending several day-care centers. Three or more liquid or semi-liquid daily evacuations were considered as diarrhoea, along with available medical information. Associated symptoms included vomit, fever and abdominal pain. The children enrolled in the study belonged to low socio-economic strata, according to the information provided by their parents/legal guardians. The faecal specimens were collected from the children only after a written consent was provided by parents/legal guardians. Also, ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee on Research of the Federal University of Goiás. MATERIALS AND METHODS SubjectCharacteristics of the samples and of the childrenFrom 2,605 faecal specimens, 1,494 (57.4%) were collected from hospitalized patients. Of the remainder faecal specimens, 528 (20.3%) were obtained from children seen in outpatient clinics, and 583 (22.4%) in day-care centers. The investigation in hospitals began in 1986 and continued until 2000, except for the 1995-1997 period, when no samples were collected. In outpatient clinics the collection of the faecal specimens took place from 1986 to 1995, while in day-care centers samples were collected from 1989 to 1994. From the total number of fecal samples, 1,324 (50.8%) samples were collected from children with diarrhoea, and 1,246 (94.1%) of these children were hospitalized. From the remaining samples, 1,281 (49.2%) came from children who presented either with other symptoms than diarrhoea or with no symptoms. From those 480 (37.5%) were from outpatient clinics. All children with no symptoms were from day-care centers. Regarding the gender

Astrovirus infection in children living in the Central West region of Brazil

“…Therefore, the seasonality of astrovirus infection in our study could be associated with the increase of the relative air humidity resulting from heavier rainfalls in the region. These results agree with those from a previous study (Cardoso et al 2002) and differ from the pattern of rotavirus occurrence in Goiânia city, which is more prominent during the dry months (April to August) (Cardoso et al 2003, Costa et al 2004.…”

Human bocavirus 1 and 3 infection in children with acute gastroenteritis in Brazil

“…In the Central-West Region of the country, the four seasons of the year are not well defined and only a dry and a rainy period are observed, corresponding to the months of April-August and September-March, respectively. Notably, RVAs are mainly detected during the dry season (Cardoso et al 2003, Costa et al 2004, whereas astroviruses and caliciviruses are more prevalent in the rainy period (Borges et al 2006. However, in the present investigation, a seasonal pattern of circulation was not observed for HBoV-1, which was detected throughout the year during the study period.…”

“…Based on the mean occurrence of other gastroenteric viruses in the region, HBoV-1 could be considered the third most common after RVAs and human cali-civiruses (Cardoso et al 2003, Costa et al 2004, Borges et al 2006, Andreasi et al 2008. Additionally, it must be noted that primer pairs that detect only HBoV species 1 and 3 were used in this study and if one considers that species 2 appears to be predominant in individuals with gastroenteritis (Arthur et al 2009, Chow et al 2010, the observed positivity rate for HBoVs may be underestimated.…”

“…For example, RVAs have been predominantly detected among children up to 24 months of age (Camarota et al 1992, Cardoso et al 2003, Costa et al 2004, with a similar age range observed for astroviruses (Silva et al 2009) and adenoviruses (Cardoso et al 1989). The caliciviruses were detected in children up to 36 months of age (or 36 months-old) (Borges et al 2006).…”

“…In addition, in the Central-West Region of Brazil, many studies have focused on the investigation of other gastroenteric agents in this population (Cardoso et al 1989, 2003, Camarota et al 1992, Borges et al 2006, Oh et al 2006, Andreasi et al 2008, Silva et al 2009). Therefore, the objective of this study, the first conducted in this region, was the detection of HBoV-1 and HBoV-3 in faecal samples obtained from children under five years of age presenting with acute gastroenteritis.…”