Epidemiological aspects of rotavirus infections in Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

In order to develop good polices regarding public health measures and vaccine use to prevent rotavirus induced gastroenteritis, the epidemiology of the illness in various regions of Brazil is necessary. Accordingly, this study was to detect the frequency and types of rotavirus in one city in a tropical part of Brazil. This is an epidemiological survey of pediatric gastroenteritis caused by rotavirus conducted in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. We analyzed 656 in-patient (190) and out-patient (466) stool samples from children ages 0 to 5 years during 1998. Rotavirus detection was performed using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). Rotavirus was isolated from 62/190 stool samples (32.6%) from hospitalized children and 16/466 (3.4%) from outpatients. The overall rotavirus frequency in this population was 11.9%. The highest rotavirus detection was found in hospitalized children ages 6 to 24 months. Rotaviruses were detected from March to September, with a peak incidence in June (33.3%), the coldest and driest month in the region. Electrophoretic analysis identified 10 different profiles, all long and compatible with group A rotavirus, termed L A through LJ. The L B and L D profiles circulated throughout most of the study period. However, in June, when the highest detection rate occurred, the vast majority (92.5%) of the positive samples displayed the L B profile, thus suggesting an outbreak caused by this rotavirus profile. Rotavirus induced gastroenteritis is common in one tropical region of Brazil, it is an important cause of diarrhea in hospitalized children ages 6 to 24 months, it is most common during dry, cold months of the year, and it may occur in electrophoretype restricted epidemics. Such analyses throughout Brazil will assist in developing sound guidelines regarding its prevention.

Rotavirus infection in children and adult patients attending in a tertiary Hospital of São Paulo, Brazil

“…Peak incidence of positive tests was between May and August, the winter months. This agrees with other studies done in temperate climate regions [14] and Brazilian studies done in Southern, Southeastern and Central-West Brazil [10,15,16]. Temporal occurrence of diarrhea admissions for children and deaths from diarrhea in Brazil occur in winter, suggesting the importance of rotavirus infection as cause of gastroenteritis in this patient population [17].…”

“…Various studies in Brazilian populations have indicated that about 2/3 of rotavirus infections occur in children under two years of age [4,10,15,16]. In our study, we found only 44.5% of positive cases in this age group (data not shown).…”

“…This difference was higher in other studies done in Brazil: Silva et al [10] found ten fold higher incidence of positive tests in hospitalized patients versus outpatients (32.6% vs. 3.4%) and Cardoso et al [11] found a prevalence rate 14.7 times higher in hospitalized patients versus outpatients (23.8% vs. 1.6%). Our hospital has an active program of infection control, based on alcohol gel use in hand washing and has a lower work load for health care workers compared with other hospitals in Brazil, and this can explain this difference.…”

Rotavirus type A and other enteric pathogens in stool samples from children with acute diarrhea on the Colombian northern coast

“…The persistency of various etiological agents remains a serious public health concern. In Latin America and the Caribbean region, as in other developing geographic regions, rotavirus is one of the most common causal agents of viral diarrhea in young children [7,9,14,17,23,28,29]. However, other agents such as diarrheagenic Escherichia coli strains, Salmonella, Shigella and Aeromonas spp, Campylobacter yeyuni, Yersinia enterocolitica and parasites have been also described [1,11,18,19,25].…”

Bioagentes patogênicos em águas residuárias: destaque para giardia spp., cryptosporidium spp. bactérias indicadoras e vírus entéricos

“…Os segmentos genômicos codificam para um grupo de seis proteínas estruturais (VPs, viral proteins), encontradas nas partículas virais, e outras cinco proteínas nãoestruturais (NSPs, non-structural proteins) presentes somente em células infectadas e não observadas em partículas maduras SILVA et al, 2001;MASCARENHAS et al, 2002; SECRETARIA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO, 2004). O principal sítio de replicação viral é o intestino delgado, no jejuno mais especificamente nas células epiteliais maduras que revestem as microvilosidades intestinais deste local; desencadeando um fenômeno de má-absorção e diarréia (ESTES, 2001;BRASIL, 2006).…”